
Glass. 

Rook U .^S^- 



iSd Congress, [ Doc. No. 323. 1 Ho. of Repi. 

1st Session. WarDept. 



SCHOOLCRAFT AND ALLEN— EXPEDITION TO NORTH- 
WEST INDIANS. 



^^fM 



LETTER ' 4r Icyf^n^^^ 



THE SECRETARY OF WxlR, 



TRANSXITTIXG 



A Map and Report of Lieut. Allen and H. B. Schooler afVs visit to the 
Northwest Indians in 1833. 



April 12, 1834. 

Read, and laid upon the table. 



War Department, 

April 11, 1834. 

Sir : In obedience to a resolution of the House ^( Representatives of 
the 28th of March, 1834, 1 have the honor to transmit a copy of the map 
and report furnished this department by Lieutenant Allen, who accom- 
panied H. B. Schoolcraft, Esq. to, and beyond, the sources of the Mis- 
sissippi river, on a visit to the Northwestern Indians, in the year 1832. 

Very respectfully. 

Your most obedient servant, 

LEW. CASS. 
Hon. A. Stevenson, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 



Head Quarters or the Army, 

Washington, May 9, 1832. 

Sir: I have been informed that Mr. Schoolcraft intends making an ex- 
pedition into the Indian country, under the authority of the War Depart- 
ment. 

You will detail an officer and ten or twelve men, to make apart of that 
expedition. The otlicer will be directed to keep a journal of the expe- 
dition ; to describe the country through which it may pass ; to delineate, 
topographically, the route and several points of importance ; to ascertain 
the manners and characters of the various Indian tribes, their numbers, 
strength in warriors, condition, mode of living, of obtaining subsistence, 
whether at peace with their neighbors or not, their places of resort for 
foreign supplies, how supplied, and by whom. He will also be directed 
to note the nature of the soil ; the geology, mineralogy, and natural his- 

[Gales 8c Seaton, print.] 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 






tory ; he will remark upon the game and fishes, as to quantity, qu 
and facilities of procuring them. 

The oflScer will transmit his report to Head Quarters, for the infc 
tion of the General in chief, and to be laid before the Secretary of 
He will be considered as on topographical duty during the time he 
be absent from his post, and engaged in the expedition. The men 
have the extra allowances accorded to soldiers on fatigue duty, 
ofl&cer will report to Mr. Schoolcraft, and take his directions. 

I am, sir, with respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. MACOMB, 
Major General commanding the Army. 
To Capt. Wilcox, 

Or officer commanding Fort Brady. 

Copy from the records of Fort Brady. 

J. ALLEN, 
Lieut, and P. Adft. 



Special Order, ) Head Quarters, Fort Brady, 

No. 2. ] June 6, IS32. 

In' obedience to general order, dated 9th May, 1832, Lieutenant Allen,. 
Corporal Wibru,ofK, Privates Briscoe, Beemis, Burke, Button, Ingram, 
and Riley, of B, Privates Copp, Lentz, and Wade, of K companies, are 
detailed to accompany Mr. Schoolcraft on his expedition into the Indian 
country. Lieutenant Allen will be furnished with a copy of the order, , 
by which he will be governed. 

The acting assistant quartermaster will furnish a boat to transport the 

party. 

D.WILCOX, 
Captain 5th Regiment commanding. 

Copy from the records of Fort Brady. 

J. ALLEN, 
Lieut, and P. Adft, 



Fort Dearborn, November 25, 183S. 

Sir : In obedience to the foregoing orders and instructions, I have pre- 
pared the accompanying map and journal, which are now most respect- 
fully submitted, as embracing my report on the several subjects to which 
you have directed my attention. 

I have been induced to report in this form, because, from the circum- 
stances of my position on the expedition, I was not able to collect sufl&- 
cient facts on which to base a full and separate report, under each of the 
various heads mentioned in your instructions ; and I have thought this 
the best method of combining the observations which I was enabled to 
make, so as best to comply with your views, and to acquit myself of a re- 
sponsible duty ; and because, in this way, I could present all my re- 
marks in the most concise shape. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 3 

The route of the expedition was up Lake Superior, to Fond du Lac ; 
thence, up the Fond du Lac river, ninety-one miles, to the mouth of the 
East Savanne river, and across by the latter river, the Savanne portage, 
and the West Savanne river, to Sandy lake and the Mississippi ; thence, 
up the Missisippi, through Lake Winnipeg, Upper Red Cedar or Cass 
lake, and Lac Traverse, to Lac La Biche^ or Elk lake, the source of the 
river ; thence, returning, back to Cass Lake, and across the country, by 
small lakes and portages, to Leech lake ; and thence across again, by little 
lakes and portages, to the source of Crow Wing river, and down this to 
the Mississippi again ; down the Mississippi, fifty-nine miles below the 
falls of St. Anthony, to the St. Croix river, up the latter to its source, in 
upper Lake St. Croix ; and thence, down the Bois Brule river, to Lake 
Superior ; again, twenty miles from Fond du Lac river, by which we had 
left the lake, on our w^ay up ; and thence back to the Saut de Ste. Marie, 
the point from which we started. 

We were absent eighty days, between the 6th of June and 26th of Au- 
gust, and travelled in that time two thousand eight hundred miles. 

The facts and observations collected on this route, and herewith pre- 
sented, are all that my time and means would allow me to collect ; and I 
have endeavored, in the following pages, to lay them before you, as they 
were brought under my notice, by the journey and operations of each 
day ; and wherever they are not as full and satisfactory as your instruc- 
tions would seem to require, the reasons for the deficiency are to be 
found in the limitation as to time and means, which necessarily and un- 
avoidably applied from my subordinate situation to the principal and con- 
ductor of the expedition, and my duty as commander of the detachment 
of troops constituting the escort. 

The primary objects of the expedition, and consequently of Mr. School- 
craft, being to vaccinate the Chippewa Indians, our movements between 
points, for this purpose, were generally rapid, scarcely allowing a mere 
passenger to make many useful observations on subjects of science, con- 
nected with the country ; and when, in connexion with this, it is con- 
sidered that I had solely the charge and care of the transportatiob and 
subsistence of a detachment of soldiers, under circumstances of great dif- 
ficulty, it will, probably, not be expected of my observations on several sub- 
jects made at the same time, that they could be very minute and complete. 
Hence the subject of botany, and one or two others, could receive but 
little attention, and are not much noticed beyond such remarks as would 
occur to a hasty observer. To the former subject. Doctor Houghton, the 
surgeon, devoted much attention, and will probably give the result to the 
public. 

On the subjects of geology and mineralogy, I have been enabled to collect 
many useful facts, which are communicated, principally, in my description 
of the route up Lake Superior, and contained in my journal between 
the 7th and 25th of June. My observations on this part of the route are 
more full and in detail than on any other, as I was enabled to make them 
from travelling it twice, going and returning. We saw but little rock for- 
mation elsewhere. 

From the source of the Mississippi to the rapids below Crow Wing river, 
rock in place is seen but once, at the falls of Peckagama, 150 miles above 
Sandy lake, where the river runs through a formation of granular quartz. 



4 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

All the formations that did occur, however, are properly noticed in their 
appropriate place. The poor pine hills about the source of the Missis- 
sippi are broken down, primitive rock, showing numerous fragments and 
pebbles of the quartz gems, and of hornblende, feldspar, mica, &c. 

On the subject of Indians, I have endeavored to comply strictly with 
your instructions, and have given information derived from the most au- 
thentic sources, much of it from the Indians themselves but mostly 
from their particular traders ; in obtaining which, particularly the cen- 
sus of the several bands and villages, I was much assisted by the polite- 
ness of Mr. Schoolcraft and Doctor Houghton. 

The value of the trade in furs, and facts relating to it, were mostly fur- 
nished by Messrs Holiday, Warren, Oakes, and Aitkin, of the American 
Fur Company, who enjoy most of the trade of the country. 

It will be perceived that the condition of the Chippewa Indians is 
rapidly approaching a crisis, when their increased population and de- 
creased resources must bring upon them great calamities, unless a conside- 
rable change is previously effected in their means of subsistence and 
mode of life. Since the humane measures of the Government for the 
stoppage of whiskey in the Indian trade, they have increased and are in- 
creasing rapidly ; but the furred and large animals of the country, upon 
which is their great dependence for their very existence, have diminish- 
ed in a converse ratio, and are every day becoming more scarce. 
And yet these Indians, with a characteristic improvidence and blind 
fatuity, have not made, nor are making, any other provision for their future 
wants and contingencies, but, on the contrary, manifest, by a continued 
-adherence to their established and peculiar habits of living, an apathy 
and indifference to their approaching condition of want and misery, al- 
together inexplicable and astonishing. 

Their vast country, though generally poor, has land enough of the rich- 
est quality to afford a subsistence, by cultivatioti, for ten times their pre- 
sent poj)ulation. But tiiey have imt any where sought a living from 
agriculture ; and in parts where the soil is richest, and the Indians most 
in need, they have been the least attentive to this means of su|ij)l^ing their 
wants; although some of them, as those about Fond du Lac, and along 
*the shores of Lake Superior, have already experienced, during two or 
three severe winters, much suffering from starvation, and many of them 
must have perished but for a scanty relief furnished by their traders. 

All the Chippewas, north and west of Lake Superior, entertain unfriend- 
ly feelings to the Government of the United States, and would undoubtedly 
embrace another occasion, similar to that of the last war with Great Bri- 
tain, to join and assist an English or other powerful enemy : but their 
hostility amounts to nothing, for they are too poor and weak to attempt to 
\\ ar tliemselvcs, and are restrained, by motives of fear and interest, from 
depredating much upon their traders. Those at Leech lake, and about the 
sources of the Mississippi, are the least friendly, as my account of them 
represents. 

About the time of the removal of the British traders from this country, 
it had commenced the decline in Indian resources, which has gone on stea- 
dily ever since, until the country is now j)oor, compared with what it was 
in the time of the JNortliwest Company and British trade ; and the Indians, 
•contrasting their present, condition with their former, and without the 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 



judgment to know and assign the true cause of the difference, attribute 
their present comparative distress and want to the change oF Government 
and traders, effected at the time referred to. And this will account for 
much of their present hostile feeling to the American Government and 
traders. 

All the Chippewa Indians have a most inveterate and irreconcilable 
hatred for their border tribe, and natural enemies, the Sioux; which, being 
duly reciprocated by the latter, keeps them both, near their borders, in a 
state of constant insecurity and warfare, and leads to endless aggressions 
on the part of eacfi. The Chippewas, however, from their poverty and 
"Weakness, suffer most fi-om this state of things, and are seldom able to 
pursue an offensive war, or to carry their operations much beyond their 
own country. Whereas their enemies, from their superior numerical 
strength, and abundant resources in means of subsistence, are enabled to 
push their excursions into the Chippewa territory, until they are resisted 
by the inaccessible nature of the country. 

The Chij)pcwas, remote from their lines, as those along Lake Superior, 
at Fond du Lac, &c., are seldom engaged in these wars, or much affected 
by them : but tlieir border brethren at Leech lake, Red lake, and along 
the Mississippi, are never at peace. The Lee;:h lake band particularly, 
being the largest single band of the tribe, and occupying a place near ihe 
lines, and made secure by the fastnesses of their lake, are in a state of 
constant excitement, either from tlie depredations of their enemies, or their 
own, upon tiiein ; and they suffer and resent more than any' other band. 
They also possess more of the qualities of savage warriors than any other 
In<lians whom we visited. For a particular account of them, see journal, 
July 16. 

Our route, excepting a small portion of it, on the Mississippi, above and 
below Foi't Snelling, in the Sioux' lands, was entirely in the country of 
the Chippewas, and we saw no other Indians excepting a few of the Sioux 
at Fort Snelling, and on the river below. 

The accompanying map is a *' delineation of the route and several 
points of importance," and is as correct a representation of the country 
as my means of observation would allow me to make it. The collection 
of materials for this object received as great care and attention as was ne- 
cessary to supply a deficiency of proper means for this purpose. 

I was not fui-nished with, nor could I procure at Fort Brady, any in- 
strunjents by which to fix, from astronomical observations, the true geo- 
gra])hical jjositions of ])oints necessaiy to be known for the construction 
of an accurate map; and, to obviate tliis inconvenience, I had recourse to 
a method of tracing the whole loutc between the few points fixed and 
given by the observations of former travellers. For this purpose, a com- 
pass, the only instrument I had, wasjjlaced in my canoe, where it was con- 
stantly utider my eye, and as the canoe proceeded in the line of a river, 
I carried my observations from the compass to a field book at every bend 
or change of direction ; thus delineating, on a large scale, in my field 
book, all the bends of the river precisely as they occurred : and by esta- 
blishing a scale of proportion, in the lengths of the reaches, I was also in 
this way enabled to lay down and preserve the general course of a river 
with surprising accuracy, as was tested, afterwards, in constructing on my 
map the routes of rivers between known points. The distances were esti- 
mated with great pains and care, from the combined judgments of all the 



6 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

gentlemen of the party, on our rate of travelling, which was very well 
determined from our travelling much on known distances. Moreover, 
many of the distances, as tlje lengths of rivers and diameters of lakes, 
■were long determined by traders and voyageurs, who could judge of them 
very well from having travelled them much. The portages were well 
enough measuied by pacing them ; and their direction was defined in the 
same way as that of the rivers. 

On the portion of the Mississippi above Cass lake, w hich was the least 
known of any part of tlie river and route, I bestowed on the tracing and 
computing of distances the most unremitted attention ; and as I had by 
tiiis time acquired a great facility in my method, I feel a confidence that 
the character, course, and length, as represented, of this interesting part, 
approaches a great degree of accuracy ; and the place which I have thus 
given to Lac La Biche, the source of the great river, may be regarded as 
being very near its true position. This is on the supposition that Cass lake, 
to which Lac La Biche is thus relatively fixed, has its true geographical 
position, from the observations of the astronomer, Thompson. 

My observations on this part of the route, giv.en on the map, and in my 
journal, between the llth and 16th July, may be viewed as settling defi- 
nitivelytiie question of the true source of the Mississipj)!, which lias excited 
some interest and curiosity, and upoji which map makers have heretofore 
been seemingly uninformed ; as, on all the published maps tliat I have seen, 
the river above Cass lake is incorrectly laid down, and Lac La Biche is 
placed north of Cass lake, instead of south of it, as it should be. 

I have placed Lac La Biche about in latitude 47° 10', and longitude 
vest of Greenwich 95° 54'. It is 165 miles above Cass lake, and 1,029 
above the falls of St. Anthony. 

Our route from Leecii lake, down the Crow Wing river, has also deve- 
loped new facts in the topography of the country, in the source, length, 
and character of that river, which claims an inteiest fiom its being the 
largest branch of the Mississijjpi above tlie falls of St. Anthony. 

The description of the St. Croix and Bois Brule Hvers, of our route 
returning from the Mississippi to Lake Superior, is also new. 

The country embraced by the map, and wiiich did not come under my 
immediate observation, is described from Indian maps, drawn by Indians 
well acquainted with it, and from the maps and descriptions of traders. 
The number of the rivers, and their length and direction, is not far from 
trutii. 

The southern shore of Lake Superior, a part of our route, is omitted in 
the map, but its topographical features are described in the journal. 

In my lettei' to you of September 13, 1832, I had occasion to mention 
the separation of Mr. Schoolcraft from the detachment on tlie St. Croix 
rivei'. The circumstances of that separation are reported in my journal 
of the St. Croix, July 29- 

I have the honor to be, 

"With the greatest respect, sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 

J. ALLEN, 
Lieutenant 5th Infantry. 

To Major General Macomb, 

General in Chief. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 7 

Journal of an '■'■Expedition into the Indian country, ^^ to the source of the 
Mississippi, made under the authority of the War Department, in 1832. 

June 7. — The party organized for this expedition consisted of Mr. 
Schoolcraft, who had the principal conduct of it ; Doctor Houghton, tlie 
surgeon, to vaccinate the Indians ; Mr. George Johnston, interpreter j Mr. 
Boutwell, a preshyterian missionary ; and twenty engagees, or Canadian 
voyageurs, in the employment of Mr. Schoolcraft, and the military part, 
consisting of myself and ten soldiers, from the companies at Fort Brady : 
making an aggregate, of the whole j)arty, of tiiirty-five souls. 

This party may he considered as divided into two parts; that organized 
by Mr. Sciioolcraft, and under his immediate direction and subsistence, 
and the escort or military part, under my command. I shall therefoi-e 
designate the former, tiiroiighoiit this journal, as Mr. Schoolcraft's party, 
or Mr. S. and party, which will be understood to embrace all excepting 
the escort, the latter being transported and subsisted under my direction. 

All our preparations having been completed, we embarked from Saut 
de Ste. Marie about five o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th of June. Mr. 
Schoolcraft and party, with their baggage, in one large Mackinac boat 
and two bark canoes, and the soldiers and myself, with our ar?ns, ammuni- 
tion, and provisions to last us to Fort Snelling, in a small Mackinac boat. 
The boats are intended for our journey along Lake Superior, ^nd will be 
abandoned at Fond du Lac, where, for river navigation, we sliall be com- 
pelled to use the Indian bark canoes. Our object being, foi- this day, 
merely to make a start, we went but six miles, to Point aux Pins, on the 
Canada side of the St. Mary's river, where we encamped for the night. 
This is a point of very general encampment for the traders, and is always 
considered by them, departing fi-om Mackinac, or the Saut de Ste. Marie, 
as their first point in the Indian country. Here the prices of their goods 
change, and any article sold at this point, or beyond it, to any of their 
hands or engagees, is charged at whattliey denominate the " interior price," 
Avhich is the same as that placed on their goods at their several trading j)osts 
in the Indian country. The St. Mary's river expands greatly above and be- 
below this place, and all of it above might be regarded as a bay of Lake Supe- 
rior, were it not that there is a perceptible current almost to the lake. Point 
aux Pins is a low, sandy barren, with a few detaciied pines growing on it. 
A small stream enters the St. Mary's, a few hundred yards below the 
extreme point, called Carp river, very remarkable for the great quantities 
of carp fish it contains, at some seasons of the year. Two hundi-ed yards 
from its mouth, the stream is eight feet wide, and four or five deep, and, 
in the spring of the year, is literally filled with these fish. I had visited 
it on a former occasion, and found them so abundant, that with ten strokes 
of a spear I killed nine fish, most of them about a foot long, and when the 
water was so muddy, from their moving in shoals, that I could not see 
any of them, but judged of their situation only by the motion of the water, 
occasioned by their moving in such great numbers. 

June 8. — Made an early stait, and soon passed into Lake Superior be- 
tween Gros Cap and Point Iroquois, the two points which mark the exit 
of the lake by the St. Mary's river, which, at this place, is nine miles 
broad, and seems, from the similai-ity in appearance of the two capes, at 
a very remote period, to have f )iced its way through a continuous moun- 
.tain that once united them. It has been supposed that an analogy existed 



8 f Doc. No. 323. ] 

between the rock formation of these points ; but, on a former occasion, 
about a year before our present visit, Doctor Houghton and myself made 
a careful examination of Poinjt Iroquois, of tlie American side, and could 
discover no rock whatever : its character, therefore, in tliis respect, is 
still conjectural. The name "Iroquois" is given this jmint, and a small 
island of the lake near it, from a massacre at this place of Iroquois 
Indians, by the Chippewas, a long time ago. Gros Cap, immediately op- 
posite, on the Cana(la side, is a large granitic bluff', rising at first perpen- 
dicularly to a litight of 150 feet, and afterwards more gradually to a 
■whole height of near 500 feet. It is a remarkable point in the great chain 
of granite niountains that confine Lake Superior, to the north. 

Turning Point Iroquois, the lake extends westwardly, forming a great 
bay between this and Whitcfish point ; the distance across being 24 
miles, and the depth of the bay from a line joining the two jjo'nts, £0 
miles. This bay receives the Tequamenon and Shelldi-ake rivers. I 
made its direct traverse in a direction N. W., by which I reached White- 
fish point before the canoes and the other boat, w hich coasted the bay, but 
all tuined the point near a mile, and encamped together at sunset, on a 
sandy beach. 

Whitefish point is a low, long, narrow tongue of land, running, in an 
easterly direction, very far into the lake, and dips so gradually under the 
water as to form a shoal far beyond its extj-emity. About a mile and a 
lialf of the end of the point is comi)oscd of shifting sand and gravel, but a 
few feet elevated above the surface of the lake, and is perfectly barren of 
vegetation ; the part back of this is low and very sandy, but a stinted 
growth of white and pitch pine, and a few small birch and \\hite cedars, 
with some shrubs, have iet)dered the soil more fixed. 

On the north side oC the point the sand is very fine, (siliceous.) and 
about a hundred yards from tlte shore is blown into numerous insulated 
liillocks, or steep mounds, from 20 to 50 feet Iiigh, partially covered with 
a small vegetation, which prevents their being destroyed by the same 
cause that formed them. The extreme point is made entirely of small 
pebbles of gianite, quartz, hornblende, ^c, very round and smooth. 

This point is remarkable and important as a fishery of whitefish — as af- 
fording more, and a better quality, of that excellent fish, than any other 
fishery of the southern slioie of the lake yet exjjlored. It has been long 
know n as a point \n liere this fish could be taken in gill nets at certain seasons 
of the year; but no use was made of it, more than is at present of several 
other fisheries of the lake, where a few Indians, or an individual trader, pro- 
cure only what is necessary for their immediate subsistence. But within 
the last two years, the enterprise of two gentlemen, Mr. Ashman and Mr. 
Roussin, who had retired from the fur trade of the American Fur Com- 
pany, has developed many facts, in relation to this fislier-y, tending to 
show its importance as a sourre of business and profitable trade. 

These gentlemen commenced the business of fishing at tliis place, two 
years ago, without any particular knowledge or experience, with i-egar-d 
to the seasons, localities, or the best means of taking the fish, and, not- 
withstanding these disadvantages, have made it a source of considerable 
profit, and ar'e encouraged to continue it more extensively. 

The fisher-y, as at present developed, commences at Shelldr-ake river, 
nine miles Irom the end of the point, on its eastern shore, and extends 
round the point and along the southern shore of the lake, as far as thfr 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 9* 

Grand Marais, or the commencement of the Grand Sable,' a distance of 
fifty-four miles. The bottom ahmg this part of the coast is sandy, and 
falls oft' gradually into deep water, and the shore is a sandy beach — cir- 
cumstances favorable to the safety and easy working of the nets. The 
fish occur in equal numbers in every j)art of its whole extent, but the point 
is the most desirable locality, from its generally affording, on one or the 
other side, a lee, and smooth water, whci-e the nets may be used during 
winds. The fisii are taken by means of the gill net alone ; the meshes ot* 
which are of a size adapted to the fisjj's head, so as to fasten in the gills 
Avhen the lish attempts to withdraw its head, after having inserted it in an 
attempt to foi'ce its way in the direction of its movement. Tlie nets are 
generally eighty fathon)s long, and from five to ten feet broad, according 
to the de|)th of tlic water ; and are set in a vertical position by leads oi*^ 
sinkers that rest on the bottom, and flr)ats of sulticient buoyancy to sup- 
port the weight of the net and hold it up. They arc tended by fishermen 
employed for the purpose, two of whom can tend and manage, in fair 
weather, ten nets ; which will yield, every morning, from one to six bar- 
rels of fish. The management of nets consists in merely raising them, 
relieving tliem of their fish, and dr(ip])ing in the same place, once each 
day ; which is done by running a canoe along their course, and raising and 
dropping as the canoe progresses. These nets cost about six dollars each. 

The fisljing season commences here in the spring, (wiien the largest and 
best fish are taken,) about the last of April, and ends about the last of June ; 
and in the fall, occurs in October and part of November'; making the wliole 
season a little more tlian three months. The rest of tiie year, the whitefish 
remain in the deep water of the lake. It is remarkable that at no other 
known fisiiei-y of the lake can the whitefisli be taken in quantities in the 
spring ; and equally so, tiiat those of this fisiiery are larger and better tlian 
at any of the others. It is also a peculiarity of tliis fish that they ai-e fatter 
and better in j)i'oportion as they are larger. Some taken here weigh fourteen 
or fifteen pounds, but the average weight is, in the spi-iitg, twenty-five to 
thirty fish to the bairel of 200 Ths., and, in the fall, thirty to forty. The 
superior quality of the Lake Superior and Saut de Ste. Marie w hitefish, 
causes them to bring, in Detroit, fi-om one to two dollars per barrel more 
than any other wlutefish of that market. Much of tiic resources of this 
fishery, as also the best means of working it, remain to be discovered, and, 
consequently, no estimate can be formed of its future value to trade. 
Messrs. Ashman and Roussin have put up at Whitefisli point, within the 
last two years, 559 barrels ; others, in the same time, and at the same 
place, have put up 313 barrels; making the whole proceeds for the above 
time, 872 barrels, worth in Detroit six dollars per barrel, or 5,234 dollars. 

It is probable that there are many other rich whitefish fisheries along 
the southern shore of the lake, but they are, as yet, unexplored. The 
northern or Canada shore is said to afford many, as also superior advan- 
tages for fishing, from the coast being more serrated by bays, and pro- 
tected by numerous islands from the effects of winds and seas, that greatly 
annoy the fishermen on the southern sjjore. 

June 9. — Mr. Schoolcraft's boat, managed by Frenchmen, and carry- 
ing most of his provisions and baggage, did not reacli our encampment 
until late last night : this circumstance determined him to strengthen the 
crew of the boat, by that of Mr. Johnston's canoe, which was accord- 
ingly abandoned, and Mr. Johnston placed in charge of the boat, 
2 



10 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

with Mr. Boutwell as passenger, Mr. Schoolcraft and Doctor Houghton 
occupying the light canoe as before ; which, being manned with a full 
crew, was able to travel at a much speedier rate than either of tlie boats. 
We left our encampment after breakfast, at six o'clock, and, following the 
coast, took a dii-ection nearly due west, which changed in the forenoon to 
10° south of west, and in the afternoon to S. 30° W. I got to the Grand 
Marais at 10 P. M., where Mr. S. and party were alread)' encamped, 
his boat being now able to jjrecede mine, from the superiority of the boat 
and crew. The whole of the coast passed to-day, presented a very plain 
bank of fine sand from twenty to a hundred feet liigh, and a continued 
forest of pine, generally small, but sometimes large and beautiful. 
A picturesque grove of white pine (I'inus strobus) of more than a mile 
extent along the lake, occurs about ten miles from our encampment. The 
grovvtii is all large, and unmixed with any other trees, the pines straight, 
tall, witliout limb, and thickly set together, on level ground, as far back as 
we could see„ 

We passed Twin river, twenty-four miles from Whitefish point. It is 
a small stream, and its mouth is so much filled with sand that it can only 
be entered by very light craft, and in smooth water. We have travelled to 
day forty-five miles. 

June 10, (Sunday.) — This being ti)e Sabbath, by a rule of Mr. School- 
craft's, we do not ti'avel, though the weatlier is fine. The rule however is 
convenient in observance, as it gives the men time to wash, bake, &;c., whicii 
they have but little»time to do wlien travelling. We arc lying in a beau- 
tiful little bay, called the Grand Marais, from its having once been a 
marsh, which, within the recollection of some old voyageurs, now present, 
has been washed away to its present state. It is a safe harbor for boats, 
and is important from its being the only one between Shelldrake river and 
Grand island, a distance of near one hundred miles. It is half a mile in 
depth, opens to the west, and is diliicult to enter with a strong west wind 
and heavy sea, which drive right into it. Traders have met with serious 
accidents in attempting to run into it under such circumstances. The 
country about here has nothing peculiar in its appearance — hills are seen 
to the S. S. W. covered with thick forests of birch and pine. 

The Grand Sable, or Great Sand, commences from the west of the en- 
trance to this harbor. 

June 11. — Left our encampment at Grand Marais at 2 o'clock in the 
morning, and passed the Grand Sable before daylight. This is a great de- 
posite of loose, fine, siliceous sand, which forms a plai)i coast for about nine 
miles, rising abruptly from the lake at an angle of near 45°, and to a height 
of about three hundred feet. It is sustained at so great an angle by its 
moisture; for it is otherwise uncemented, and gives way under the feet, 
making its ascent almost impracticable. It is deposited in three layers or 
beds which are distinguishable by a slight difference of color, and rests on 
a flat rock of variegated sandstone, which is seen a few feet under the sur- 
face of the water, near the shore. The summit is in a plain of the same 
loose drifting sand, which extends back for some miles, and is perfectly 
barren, containing embedded trunks of trees. In this plain, about a mile 
and a half back, there is a small lake, of more than a mile and a half in 
circumference, of clear, transparent water, and of apparently great depth, 
enclosed by a beautiful low bank of clear sand, and a beach of small peb- 
bles. This lake is the source of a branch of the Tequamenon river, that 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 11 

empties into Tequamenon bay, between Point Iroquois and Whitefish 
point, and is remarkable from its occurring in tbe middle of a sandy plain. 

As we progressed, the Grand Sable gradually fell off into a low sandy 
bank, tbirty or forty feet bigb, covered with a small growth of pine, birch, 
sugar-maple, and beecli, (Fagus ferruginea,) which continues for about 
twelve miles, and terminates in the grand sandstone formation, called the 
" Pictured Rocks," which constitutes twelve miles more of the coast to 
Grand island. This is the most beautiful and picturesque part of the 
whole southern coast of Lake Superior. 

The formation is the "red sandstone," which rises gradually to the 
height of three hundred feet, in strata nearly horizontal, and from one to 
eight feet thickness, forming a perpendicular and projecting wall, with 
but one or two interruptions, from the point where it is first seen, to the 
entrance of the harbor of Gi'and island, where it leaves tiie lake, and, 
turnin.i^ to the south, disappears in wooded hills. This wall rises perpen- 
dicularly out of the water, which is apparently of great depth immediately 
at the base ; and in places where the falling down of upper portions of the 
rock has been recent, it is perfectly vertical, with the regularity of ma- 
sonry from the base to the summit. But generally the rock is projecting, 
the undermining operations of the water and frost at the base not having 
progressed far enough to allow the whole entablature above to split, and 
tumble over from its own weight. 

The effect of the long action of the lake on this rock is here curiously 
exemplified, and can be distinctly observed to a height of more than a hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the present level of the water, proving conclu- 
sively that at some remote period the water of the lake stood at nearly 
that height above where it now is. The surface of the rock is not regular, 
presenting many angular and rounded points and notches, or little coves 
and bays ; and where parts were softer than the general rock, and where 
water onzed from between the strata near the base, the action of the frost 
internally, and of the waves externally, has worn out caverns, domes, and 
arched ways, of great extent and singularity. In some places, water, con- 
taining vegetable and mineral matter, has run from the strata near the top, 
and striped the surface down to the bottom in all varieties of colors. 
The general surface is almost continuous for about twelve miles, in a di- 
rection a little soutli of west. It is only broken in one or two places by 
small streams and their little valleys, the largest of which is Miner's river. 
This stream, which was too small to admit our boat, has its mouth in a 
little sandy bay, to the east of whicii the bluff terminates in a remarkable 
feature, called the '< Dorick Rock." This is a large slab or tabular rock, 
of about fifty feet diameter, and eight feet thickness ; supported on the side 
next to the bay by four columns, the largest of which is about seven feet 
through, and the smallest about three feet ; tiie other side being supported 
by the main rock, of which it is a part. This whole structure presents 
four regular and distinct arches, two of which, being perpendicular to the 
shoi'e, may be seen from the lake ; the other two are radiant to tl'.e great 
arch, and nearly parallel to the shore. The large arch has a span of about 
thirty-five feet, and a rise of one-fourth the span. Its floor is inclined to 
the lake, making the height of t!ie soffit at the entrance forty feet, and at 
the egress eighteen feet, the soffit or interior surface of the arch being hori- 
zontal. The lesser arches have a span of from five to eight feet, in the 
same plane with that of the large arch, but their floors are higher. The 
columns are round, and have almost the regularity of masonry. 



12 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

This structure is elevated at its base forty feet, and at its summit one 
hundred feet above the lake, and is the extreme point of the bluff, which 
it terminates perpendicularly. Tlie top of the rock is covered with a ve- 
getable soil, and a growth of timber, among which are three pines of from 
two to three feet diameter. ^ 

The Dorick rock is but one of the features of this part of the coast ; 
there are many others equally curious and beautiful, and the w hole presents 
a scenery of grandeur and beauty not surpassed, perhaps, by any other 
scenery of our country. 

Fionj the Pictured rocks we entered the eastern channel to the harbors 
of Grand island, and, passing round the island, encamped on the southern 
«hore of the western channel, at a trading house. Grand island is a large 
and elevated island, of about.twenty miles circumference, and stands very 
little out into the lake, beyond the line of the coast, w ith a broad channel 
running round it. Back of the island the channel expands into large deep 
bays, that run into it and the main land, foiming commodious and safe 
harbors for vessels. Next to the lake, it presents high sandstone bluffs, 
but its other side falls off into a low shore. On a low sandy point of the 
south side of the island, there is an Indian village, with a present popula- 
tion of fif'ty-nine souls; thirty-live males and twenty -four females; war- 
riors twelve. 

These Indians are well clothed, and look healthy. They derive their 
subsistence from the fish of the bays of Grand island : herring, trout, and 
small whitefish, which they take with the spear and in gill nets, and from 
some game, principally the common red deer, which they kill between this 
and Lake Michigan ; and from their trader, who supplies a part of their 
jjrovisioiis in winter. The present trader is Mr. Nolan, a clerk to Mr. 
Holiday, of Keewaywenon bay. He made last year three packs, worth 
S9O0, principally beaver, martens, and muskrats. 

Twenty of the Indians now of this village belong rather to Presque 
Isle, forty miles above, where they live and hunt most of the year. We 
have travelled to-day forty-three miles. The soil about the trading house 
is rich and heavily timbered, mostly sugar-maple and birch, and the land 
is said to be of good quality from here soutli to Lake Michigan. 

June 12 — We were detained at our encamjiment by a head wind, until 
10 o'clock A. M., when, the wind falling, we got out of the western chan- 
nel, and attempted to make the traverse of a deep bay, twelve miles across 
in a due west course, but the old sea ran so high that most of my men be- 
came sea-sick, and Mr. Schoolcraft, unable to proceed in his canoe, ran 
into the bay, and made a harbor in the mouth of a small river, where we 
encami)ed, having come but about eight miles. This little river has its 
channel at the mouth througlj a flat sandstone rock, and is hence called 
««La Riviere au Galet." It is small, barely admitting our boats. The 
land here is sandy and poor. Two miles farther, in the bottom of the bay, 
is the river Aux Trains, and near it an island of the same name. ( • 

June 13. — On leaving this bay, we passed a low% rocky shore, four or 
five miles, and taking a direction due west, which left the shore some dis- 
tance to our left, we reached Presque Isle at 2 o'clock P. M., a distance 
of thirty-two miles. I could only see the shore sutRciently to notice its 
indentations by little bays, and that tlie land was low, with a sandy beach 
all the way. Nine miles from the river Aux Trains, we passed Laughing- 
fish river; fifteen miles farther. Chocolate river; and six miles farther. 
Dead river, in Presque Isle bay — all small. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 13 

Fresque Isle is geologically interesting. It is a mass of serpentine 
rock, about two miles in circumference, rising gradually on all sides, to a 
height of two hundred feet. The peninsula extends far into the lake, and 
is connected with the main laud by a low, narrow, sandy isthmus, fifty to 
oi»e hundred yards broad, covered with pine. The rock is the common 
serpentine, but does not exactly answer to any description of that rock 
triat I have seen, and in some of its characters it resembles chlorite. Its 
texture is compact, and its grain fine ; it is harder than the usual varieties 
of serpentine, is difficult to cut with a chisel, or to scrape with a knife; 
its fracture is earthy and uneven, and has a dark dull color, with very 
small, whitish veins, traversing it in different directions ; when polished 
it exhibits a beautiful, clear, smooth surface, very prettily variegated with 
different shades of dark gieen. The mass of the rock is traversed with 
numerous veins of the pi-ecious serpentine, running api)arently through it, 
in different directions, and with different inclinations. These veins may be 
distinctly traced on the surface, exhibiting the precious serpentine in many 
varieties of color. They vary from one-fourth to three or four inches in 
breadth, and each vein is composed throughout of the same variety. Some 
exhibit it compact, opaque, and almost white, with a light tinge of yellow 
and green ; in others it is seen of a dark, clear, leek green, beautifully 
translucent. But the finest variety occurs in the broader veins, and in the 
asbestus form, of a beautiful deep green color, transparent, and jwlishes 
well. Its fracture, in the directioti of its fibre, exhibits the structure of 
compact asbestus, and is lustrous, but occasionally shows very small fibres 
of asbestus ; a fracture perpendicular to the fibres shows a very close, 
compact texture. Another very curious variety was discovered in a small 
vein ; it was of a light green color, opaque, and veined in the manner of 
the agate. 

The great mass of the rock rises gradually from the lake, and on the 
north side ; it was not too steep for us to land on it and walk up its sur- 
face, which is generally smootli and regular, and of a very dark, glossy 
appearance, somewhat resembling hornblende rock. It presents large fis- 
sures or openings, however, in one of which I ran my boat three or four 
times its length, into a little cove with a gravel beach and perpendicular 
walls all round it, where pyrites of iron were found among the pebbles. On 
the top and north side, the rock is covered with a small growth of trees 
and bushes : on the east side, for perhaps one hundred feet at the base, it is 
overlayed with rotten red sandstone, which being broken off perpendicularly 
toward the lake, shows the line of coincidence of the two rocks as it 
emerges from the water. 

Having procured some specimens of the rock and veins, and made this 
imperfect examination, which is all that my time would allow, we passed 
a bay of five miles traverse, in a N. W. course, and touclied Granite point, 
a high bluff peninsula, very like in appearance to Presque Isle, and con- 
nected with the shore in a similar manner. The rock however is granite, 
heaved up in a very irregular and confused mass, presenting numerous 
irregular fissures, and overlayed with red sandstone for ten or fifteen feet 
above the surface of the lake, in the same manner as the seipcntine rock 
of Presque Isle. Seven miles farther, in the same direction, brought us 
across another bay, and to a \ery rough shore of granite bluffs, where we 
ran into a small stream which came apparently through a fissure of the 



14 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

rock, and encamped, placing our tents on the rock, sixty feet above i>ur 
boats, but not more than ten feet from them liorizontally. 

We have come to-day forty-four miles, and have had high peaked, gra- 
nitic looking mountains on our left nearly all day. The rock about our 
encampment shows many large veins of green stone. Mr. Schoolcraft 
and Dr. Houghton, with the canoe, have their encampment ahead. 

June 14. — Leaving our rough harbor, we passed a low sandstone sliore 
of seven or eight miles. A high range of hills was seen off to the south, 
running N. W. and S. E., probably a part of the chain observed yester- 
day back of Presque Isle. About ten miles from our encampment, the 
shore shows a very irregular black rock for two or three miles, which on 
examination proved to be hornblende rock and hornblende slate. This 
rock projects into the lake in many points, which present, for some dis- 
tance from the water, a bare, black, glossy surface. Leaving this, the 
red sandstone shows itself again, in high, prominent bluflf points, embrac- 
ing deep regular bays, nearly all of which have low sandy shores and 
beaches in the bottom of their circuit. Six of these bluff points occur 
nearly in the same N. W. line, in a distance of twenty miles, before we 
reach Keewaywenon bay ; some of them seventy feet higli, and all pre- 
senting mural precipices to the lake. This sandstojie, of which we have 
seen so much, has a dull, dark red color, occurs in thin strata, and has a 
very rough, ugly appearance. It contains no organic remains, and is in 
no way interesting ; a thin sandy soil rests upon it, and supports a growth 
of cedar and pine. 

Back of this formation, the chains of granite mountains rise to great 
heights, and occasionally display the base surfaces of their rugged peaks. 
They come down to within a mile of the lake, at the entrance to the Kee- 
waywenon bay, where another chain farther back runs off to the south, 
in the direction of the length of the bay. 

From the last of the high sandstone bluff points, described above, the 
two boats commence the traverse of the great bay Keewaywenon, steering 
N. 60° W., to a cluster of little rocky islands which are situated in the 
bay, about eight miles from the shore, and off the mouth of Huron river 
called the '' Huron Islands." These islands, four or five in number, are 
great masses of granite, grouped near together, of very rugged aspect, 
and irregular shape. The largest is about a mile in length, one hundred 
and fifty feet high, and has some little bushes and trees growing in its fis- 
.sures. The others are bare rock, and served thousands of gulls for nest- 
ing places. Some fissures of the large island, on which we landed, 
are remarkable. One running entirely through the island in a narrow 
part of it, allows the water to flow through, though at the top, forty or 
fifty feet above the water, a person may leap over it. South of the Huron 
islands is the mouth of Huron river, and six miles west of the latter 
is a long narrow point, called Point Abbaye, which is the western cape of 
Huron bay, and divides it from Keewaywenon bay. Huron bay opens 
into Keeywawenon bay between Huron river and Point Abbaye, and runs 
back to the south and southwest, to a distance of more than twenty miles, 
almost as far as the great bay of which it is a subordinate branch. It is deep 
water throughout, but becomes verj narrow towards the end, and is used 
as a fishery by the Indians, affording trout, herring, and whitefish. 

Keewaywenon bay is the largest and most remarkable of the whole 
akc. It is thirty-two miles deep from Point Abbaye, in a southwest direc- 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 15 

tion, and its whole depth, from the extreme point of the peninsula of Kee- 
waywenon, is about seventy miles. This peninsula runs far into the lake, 
in a northeasterly direction, and seems to approach Granite point in such 
a manner as to make the great bay of Keewaywenon to commence pro- 
perly between Granite point and tlie east end of the peninsula. The dis- 
tance between these two points is between forty and fifty miles. The 
voyageurs, however, going up the lake, do not consider themselves in Kee- 
waywenon bay until they get within six or seven miles of Huron river, or 
the Huron islands. The breadth of the bay from Huron river is thirty 
miles, and from the islands to the nearest point of the peninsula is twenty- 
two miles ; this is the usual boat traverse in fair weather, and was ours 
on the present occasion. We left the islands at 3 o'clock P. M., and 
crossed the bay in a direction a little N. of N. W., in five hours and a 
half, encamping at half past 8, behind a sandstone bluff point, in a little 
sandy hay opening to the northeast. All the traders and voyageurs con- 
sider this a dangerous traverse, and boats are frequently detained for 
several days on one or the other sides of the bay, waiting for favorable 
weather to cross. We were fortunate in having a perfect calm all the 
way, and crossed without difficulty or apprehension. The view from the 
middle of the bay is one of the most beautiful and picturesque of tiie lake. 
A high mountain chain that runs along the middle of tlie peninsula Kee- 
waywenon, is seen, in front, running far out into the lake, till its tops 
seem just emerging above the surface. Behind, to the S. and S. E. the 
granite mountains that come down to the lake at Huron river, show their 
base surfaces and tops ; and the more distant chain which runs off to the 
sodth, gives, in the blue distance, a distinct outline of innumerable high 
peaks, connected by curves made regular, and well defined by the dis- 
tance. To the right and left, in the direction of the length of the bay, 
nothing is to be seen but the beautiful expanse of clear water. 

Mr. Schoolcraft, in his canoe, left the boats near the Huron islands^ 
and took the usual canoe route down the bay, intending to visit Mr. 
Holiday's trading house, and an Indian village, near the bottom of the 
bay, and then make the traverse to Portage river, in a narrow part, 
and cross the great peninsula by a portage to the lake on the other side, 
"where he was to remain encamped till the boats made the tour round. The 
usual route for canoes that make the portage, is, from Point Abbaye down 
the southeastern shore about nine miles, and thence across, in an oblique 
direction, about twelve miles, to the mouth of Portage river ; up this 
river six miles, to a lake twelve miles long and two or three broad, and 
through this lake to a little river at its head, which is ascended six miles 
to its source in a wet savanna ; from which, by a portage of one mile, they 
reach the lake on the north side of the peninsula, which here, and by this 
route, is twenty-five miles broad. 

A distance of ninety miles round the point Keewaywenon is saved by 
this route across by the portage. Boats, however, must always coast round 
the point, and, from the great prevalence of winds and seas so far out in the 
lake, this part of the route is frequently tedious, difficult, and dangerous. 

The number of Indians about Huron and Keewaywenon bays is one hun- 
dred and thirty, about half of them males, and about twenty-five of these 
warriors. They subsist in summer principally on fish, which they take 
in sufficient quantities in the bays by gill nets and the spear. Whitefish, 
herring, and trout, are abundant in these bays. In winter they hunt the 
marten, otter, muskrat, and beaver, and during their iiunts are mainly sub- 



16 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

sisted by their trader, with provisions taken from Mackinac. In this 
season they depend much on him for their subsistence, and it is questiona- 
ble if they could now, in the present state of their counti-y, live without the 
partial supply that he annually distributes to them. Their country is ex- 
hausted of the game, deer, bears, &c.,that once furnished them food; 
their fisheries are impracticable at times, from the rigors of winter, and 
many of them would undoubtedly suffer from starvation, were it not for 
the relief alluded to, which is given them for their furs. They get provi- 
sions and goods from their trader, when he first returns from Mackinac, 
in the fall, and disperse to their several hunting grounds for the winter; 
from which the men frequently return to bring in their furs, and get fresh 
supplies. The present trader at this post is 5lr. Holiday, of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company, who makes this his head quarters for two other posts, 
at which he has subordinate traders or clerks ; one at Grand island, and 
one at the mouth of the Ontonagon river. This gentleman has lived and 
traded at this post for about twenty-four years, only coming out every 
summer to Mackinac to sell his furs, and get new goods. The Indians of 
his district now depend on him for their annual supply of clothing, ammu- 
nition, &.C., for which he usually gets all their furs ; but the exhausted 
condition of their country, requiring, in addition to the usual wants of 
Indians, a great quantity of j)rovisions, the trade of late years has not 
been profitable, and his whole returns in furs in the spring seldom exceed 
by more than one thousand dollars the expenses of his thiec posts. More 
tlian half of his annual stock in trade is provisions. He makes usually 
at Grand island, three packs; at his own j)ost, on the bay, ten packs; 
and at the Ontonagon river, two packs; in all, fifteen packs, worth 55300 
a pack, or j^4,500. The furs are principally beaver, martens, rats, otters, 
and a few bears. 

Mr. Holiday is frequently opposed at his several posts by other traders, 
not of the American Fur Company, but generally with loss to those op- 
posing ; for his superior influence over the Indians, acquired from a long 
residence among them, secures for him all the furs. 

June 15. — Started at half past 3 A. M., and commenced the coasting of 
the peninsula, along its southern shore, in a general direction a little east 
of northeast, eight miles took us across a sandy bay of no great depth, and 
to the mouth of a small river, supposed to be *' Tobacco river.*' It runs 
out in a mouth about ten yards broad, and eighteen inches deep, with a 
strong current over a flat, sandstone rock, and has three j)erpendicu- 
lar falls over the same rock, all of which can be seen at one view from its 
mouth. The first, 50 yards from the mouth, is five feet ; the second, £0 
yards farther, seven feet, and the third, 10 yards farther, eight or nine 
feet. It is remarkable that so large a river should flow from the peninsula, 
Nvhich is in no ])art more than thirty or forty miles broad, and has a chain 
of mountains dividing it in the centre. 

A few miles fiom Tobacco river we met Mr. Oakes, a trader of the Ame- 
rican Fur Company, from Lac du Flambeau, his post. He was on his 
way to Mackinac, with two Mackinac boats, carrying out the furs of his 
trade the previous winter. Mr. Oakes is the princij)al trader for the dis- 
trict or department of Lac du Flambeau, between Lake Superior and Green 
Bay and the Ouisconsin river. He has four posts under iiis charge, Lac du 
Flambeau, his head quarters ; Lac Sable; Chippewa river, and Ouiscon- 
sin river; which yield, severally, about the same quantity of furs, but 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 17 

varying, in different years, between 1,500 and §2,000 for each post, and 
making his whole trade worth between six and eight thousand dollars a 
year. Tlie Indians of his department get nearly all their goods and ne- 
cessaries from him, and subsist on the resources of the counUy, game and 
fish. In tlie fall and winter they kill great numbers of the common red 
deer, which are \evy plenty about Chippewa river. In the spring and 
summer, their subsistence is principally fish and berries, and a few furred 
animals. They sometimes make excursions against the Sioux, but they 
are not, at present, at war with any other tribe. They are represented ag 
entertaining, generally, a very unfriendly feeling towards the Government 
of the United States, and are only restrained by fear from depredations 
on their traders. 

Leaving Mr. Oakes, we crossed a large deep bay that ran eight or ten 
miles inland, with a sandy bank and beach for about half its circuit, where 
the mountains came abrujjtly down, and form the noi-tliern shore of rugged 
massive rock. From this bay the shore inclines a little more to the east, 
and presents tmmerous rocky points, with little coves and sandy bays 
between. Near the end of the peninsula, the shore becomes more rocky, 
rough, and abrupt, and the course is east of northeast till we reach the 
most easterly point, whei-e it suddenly changes to almost due north, vary- 
ing but two or three degrees west, for a distance of four miles, when it 
again suddenly changes to nearly due west, along the north side of the 
peninsula. That part of the shore that runs north and south is the end of 
the peninsula Keewaywenon, and the most easterly point of it is called 
*' Point Keewaywenon." There is no projecting or attenuated point, but 
the peninsula is here abruptly truncated in a north and south direction, 
presenting a rough rocky end, of near four miles, in this course, with a 
small island, called "' Beaver Island," about five miles directly off it in 
the lake. 

This is a dangerous part of the coast for boat navigation. The penin- 
sula offers no safe harbor for boats on its extremity, or near it, on the 
south side, and we were anxious to get into a harbor' on the north side be- 
fore dark. My boat, iiow^'ver, was several miles behind Mr. Johnston's, 
and darkness, a strong head wind, and a thick fog, overtook me soon after 
1 turned the eastern point. I was then obliged to grope my way for seve- 
ral miles along a high rocky shore, of most forbidding aspect, against 
which 1 was in continual danger of being dashed to pieces, but which I 
•could not leave fartiier than the length of the oars, lest 1 should lose sight 
of it, and get lost and be blown off into the lake. In this situation I con- 
tinued to hug the shore, and contend with the wind and sea, though not 
without great apprehension, until half past nine at night, when I ran the 
boat into a dark opening in the rock, which proved to be a little cove about 
fifteen feet bioad, formed between the main rock and a projecting crag about 
thirty feet high, and of sufficient length to conceal the boat and protect it 
from the wind then blowing. The bottom of the cove had been filled in 
with pebbles for a distance of twenty feet, and on this I encamped, securing 
the boat by means of cold chisels driven into the rock, to make fast to. My 
experience to-night proves the necessity, in coasting this lake, of always 
having a guide mi the boat well acquainted with the coast and the situation 
of its harbors. The severe winds and sudden storms on Lake Superior 
are proverbial, and it is never considered safe to encamp over night out of 
a harbor. 

3 



18 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

This peninsula is the most marked topographical feature of the southern* 
shore of the lake, and is one of the most interesiing in its geology and mine- 
ralogy. Estimating fts length ftoni the hottom of Keeway vvenon hay, it is 
about eighty miles long. It is four miles broad at its extremity, twenty- 
five or thirty miles in its middle part, twenty miles at the portage, and 
between thirty and forty at the base, across from the bottom of the bay. 
A chain of round lopped roc ky mountains, from 500 to 800 feet iiigli, rise 
near the end of the ])oinr, and extend back, along its centre, to a distance 
of near forty miles, occupying, for this distance, nearly the whole breadth 
of the peninsula, and soujetimcs coming down, at the bottoms of bays, till 
their bases are washed by the lake. >\ herever these mountains have beeu 
examined, tlicy are trap rock, and this is undoubtedly tlie formation of all 
of them. Several varieties of trap are seen along tlie shore, and, in fact, 
constitute ail the rock of tl»c shore from Tobacco river. Basalt, amygda- 
loid, hornblende, greenstone, and rubblestone, arc a>nong the varieties. 
The rock of the extreme point, and of the shore, for seven or eiglit miles 
beyond, is a coarse crag. It is composed of pebbles, of a dark brown color> 
showing the same color in tlieir fracture, varying in size from the smallest 
to more than one foot in diatneter, and usiited by a calcareous cement, which, 
exhibits calcareous spar, in crystals and little veins, in many parts. It 
does not seem to extend far from the shore towards the mountains, for in 
many places, where it is worn out to form little coves, the shore, at the 
bottom of the cove, shows only sand and pebbles that have been worn from 
the main rock. From its exposed situation so far out in the lake, this rock 
is much subjected to abrasion from ice, &c., a«id presents to the lake an ir- 
regular, ugly, dark colored surface, generally vertical, and from eight to 
thirty feet high. Many large portions are detached, and stand out one or 
two hundred yards in the lake, in huge shapeless masses. 

Travelled this day 45 miles. 

June 16. — Left my rough encampment, between the crags, at half past 
four in the morning, in a dense fog, and coasting along the rock in a di- 
rection about west; a mile and a half brought us to the ♦* Little Marais" 
harbor, where Mr. Johnston had preceded us with his boat, and encamp- 
ed the previous evening, and was now waiting for us to con»e up with 
him, under some apprehension that we had met with accident during the 
night. This harbor is much used by the voyageurs of Lake .Superior, and 
is the first secure one that occurs after leaving Tobacco river. It is a lit- 
tle basin one hundred and fifty yards across, nearly circular, with a low- 
sandy beach all round, excepting on the side next to the lake, where it 
is separated by the crag rock spoken of, which forms the shore. I'he en- 
trance is a narrow gap in the rock ; and this again is locked and pro- 
tected from the lake by a long mass of the same, fifteen feet high, and 
twenty or thirty broad, placed directly before the entrance, and extending 
thirty or forty yards on each side of it, parallel to the main rock, leaving 
a channel open at both ends, and just broad enough to admit boats with- 
out oars. The banks of this harbor are much lower than the rocks in 
front ; ajid there is a small marsh a short distance back ; hence, the name 
of «' Marais" for the harbor. Two miles farther brought us to the " Green 
Rock," a detached block of the crag rock, eight or nine feet high, and as 
many through the base, to which the voyageurs have given this name, from 
the color it has acquired from copper green disseminated through it. It 
is intersected by a vein of calcareous spar, that is also impregnated with the 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 19 

ore, and lies in the water but a few feet from the main rock of the shore, 
which also presents traces of copper green and copj)er black.* 

From the Green rock, the shore has a general direction southwest; and 
the same rock continues five or six miles, intersected by numerous veins of 
calcareous spar, all running perpendicular to the shore. Some of them were 
two feet broad, and could be traced up the rock, and into the lake, as far 
as we could see. Numerous rocky islands occur along this part a short 
distance from The main land : some of them bare, and others covered with 
vegetation. We landed again, twelve miles from the Green rock, at some 
covper veins, discovered by Mr. George Jolinston last year. The crag 
rock had disappeared some miles back, and we now struck upon the 
amygdaloid, which formed the whole shore, and the base of mountains that 
rose gradually back. These veins of copper ate four or five in number, 
very near together, and all rur» perpendicular to the shore. They can be 
traced by their color many yards into t!ie water, but they soon disappear 
on the shore, running under the rock. Tlie largest of the veins is about 
three inches broad at the surface, but it has been excavated for specimens, 
about two feet in depth, where it is near six inclies broad. All the veins 
are composed alike of the green carbonate of copper and metallic copper 
mixed. In excavating for specimens in the largest vein, I took out pieces 
of metallic copper of several ounces weight ; and the men picked several 
pieces from the smaller veins, that occupied their whole breadth, and pro- 
jected above the general surface of the rock. It would require much time 
and labor to make such an examination of these veins as would definitely 
develop their extent and resources, but the inducements their present ap- 
pearance offers to such an investigation are certainly very strong and flat- 
tering. 

The rock here is the amygdaloid variety of trap, and presents, ail over 
its surface, innumerable little geodes of ijuartz gems, agate, cornelian, 
chalcedony, &c. I knocked many from it, and picked up otliers that were 
loose on the shore. And near the veins I discovered a large agatized 
cornelian of more than ten pounds weight, embedded in the lock about a 
foot under the water ; but its surface, having been long exposed to the 
action of the frost and waves, was very much fractured, and in splitting 
the rock to obtain it, it was broken into many pieces, most of which rolled 
into the deep water and were lost. I, however, brought away large geo- 
logical specimens of the rock, to which much of it is still attached. 

After passing four miles more of the same rock, I crossed a beautifully 
curved bay, about nine miles across and six deep, with a sandy beach, and 
sand banks sometimes fifty feet high. Leaving the bay, the shore con- 
tinued regular and less rocky, presenting, alternatel}, dark sandy beaches 
and rocky points; and some little bays, with a beach of white sand, and 
banks of the same. In one of the latter, I encamped at sunset, having 
travelled this day thirty-two miles. 

One of my men caught a trout to-day of more than forty pounds weight, 

♦ On my return, Doctor Houghton and myself put a blast in the main rock, at this place, 
■which raised off about two feet thickness of it, and developed a vein of pure copper 
black, from which we obtained many specimens of the richest quality, containing no impu- 
rity whatever. The vein was about six inches broad, and ran vertically into the rock, in- 
creasing in breadth as it descended. It is probable that tlie vein descends into the trap 
rock, to wliich it belongs, and tliat the crag rock has been formed round it, by the deposi- 
tion and cementation of its pebbles. The copper black is one of tlie richest ores of cop- 
per ; and this locality of it is worthy of further investigation, which our time would not 
permit us to make. 



20 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

with a trowling line : these fisli may be caught in this way along almost 
any part of the lake, when the boat is sailing. 

June 17, {S^niday.) — The last rocky j)(»int of this part of the coast 
was near our encampment, and on examination proved to be amygdaloid, 
very compact and hard, resembling massive basalt. It showed on its sur- 
face many large crystals of amethystine spar, but with their crystals 
much injured by attrition, the rock being low and subject to l)e washed by 
the waves. From the same rock I got a few specimens of the smoky 
quartz crystals, a very rare mineral. P'rom this point our course was 
across a bay of fifteen miles traverse, with high banks of light yellow 
sand and a gravel beach ; the shore gently curved, and of no great 
depth from the line of traverse, which was in direction S. S5° W". NN hen 
we had made about twelve miles across the bay, we discovered, on the 
shore, the tents of Mr. Schoolcraft and party, denoting the end of the 
|)oi"tage where Mr. S. had promised to wait for us, on parting, three days 
before, in Keewaywcnon bay. This being Sunday, we stopped here for 
Ihe rest of the day. Mr. S. had come over the portage, from Mr. Iloli- 
<iaj's house, the previous aftei*noon, and Mr. Johnstoji, who had left me 
at the copper veins, had arrived at ten o'clock last night. 

We have now made the circuit of this great j)eniiisula of t!ie lake, which 
is, generally, the most difficult part of the whole coast. Running out as it 
does to near the middle of the lake, at this part it is greatly exposed to 
winds and rough seas, insomuch that boats are frequently detained seven 
or eight days at the end of the point, before they can get a calm and 
smooth waier long enough to get round it. 

J have been particular in describirsg this part of our route, because it is 
the least known of any part of the lake. Its rocks and minerals are no- 
^hei*e accurately described, and its topography is falsely represented on 
all the maps of it that I have seen. The most common error in respect to the 
latter, is the running of the peninsula out too much to the north, and not 
'enough to the east. The true direction of its length is a little (say 4°) east 
of northeast ; and this, as well as I could determine, is also the direction 
•of the chain of hills or mountains that run along its middle. Another 
«rror is, the making of two prominent points at the end of the pennisula, 
and calling one the ''East Point" and the other *' West Point." These 
points are not prominent ; the shore between them has scarcely any inden. 
tation : and, as the line joining them is nearly due north and south, it were 
fitter to call one end of it North point and the other South point. Such a dis- 
tinction, however, is not necessary, for the north point is rounded and inde- 
terminate, and the south point is sufficiently protuberant to retain the name 
of Point Keewaywenon, which is now given to it by the voyageurs and 
trailers, and which is often applied to the whole peninsula. 

The mountains run back from the point near thirty miles, but not so far 
as the portage, which is over level ground, and dry three-fourths of a mile 
from tl»e swamp to the north end of it, where we aie encamped. These 
mountains show in a few places a bare surface of rock near their summit, 
but arc mostly covered with vegetation, which looks, from the lake, green, 
and in some parts tall and heavy; it is principally aspen poplai", (po- 
pulus tremulordcs,) birch, (betulapapyracea,) cedar, and pine. The forest 
on the jwi'tage and about our encampment is very heavy and strong: 
birch, sugar-maple, large pine, and hemlock, (pinus canadensis.) The 
vegetable soil however is but two or three inches thick, and rests on 
white sand, nearly pure, which forbids the idea of profitable cultivation. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 21 

The bank of the lake, at our encampment, is sixty feet high, with a 
beaclj of pebbles drifted half way up it. There is no iiarbor here against 
northern winds, and our boats were unh)aded and drawn out on the beach. 

June 18. — A strong northwest wind, which made the lake very rough, 
forbade the embarkation of Mr. S.'s canoe, and under the prospect of the 
canoes being detained a considerable time, Doctor Houghton and myself 
determined to embark in my boat, and run on, with the wind then blowing, 
to the Ontonagon river, with a view, if the wind still continued, to make 
a trip to the <' Copper Rock," on that river, before Mr. S. could come up» 
and without detaining the jjarty for that jjurjjose. I accordingly, about 
noon, loaded my boat, and launched her from timbers into a heavy sea, 
without accident; but I had scarcely got out wlien the wind lulled to a 
calm ; and Mr. Schoolcraft, having embarked his boat and canoe, over- 
took us in a few hours, and we proceeded to La Riviere a Misere, and en- 
camped 27 miles from the portage. In this distance we passed several 
bluff points of sandstone rock, from twenty to fifty feet high, with the 
shore gently curved between them, into sandy bays, presenting high 
banks of fine yellow sand, and rich green forests back. We passed, suc- 
cessively, the mouths of Salmon Trout, Gr'averod's, and Elm rivers — dis- 
tant from the portage nine, fifteen, and twenty-two miles — all small, and 
much filled with sand at the mouths. Our course was, at first, S. 60° W., 
but, in tlie latter pait, cui-ved in gently to S. 10° W., forming a gradual 
indentation, at the bottom of which is the little river of our encampment. 

Tiiere is a range of hiils a mile or two back, parallel to the shore of the 
lake, the sides of whicli siiow forests of pine, birch, and sugar-maple ; but 
the country is exceedingly poor in game ; and the river has its name. La 
Riviere a Misere, or Misery river, from the circumstance of ti-aders 
having greatly suffered here, in former times, from starvation. There has 
not been a trader here for many years. 

The shore, about the mouth of the river, is pure marine sand, with little 
ridges of pure iron sand — the paper sand of commerce — running jiear and 
parallel to the edge of the water. When this sand is washed up by a 
gentle wave, it arranges itself in little rows or ridges, entirely separate 
and distinct from the siliceous sand which is held in suspension and 
bi-ought up by tiie same wave. This is explained by the difference of spe- 
cific gravities of the two sands, and the magnetic affinity of tiie particles of 
the iron sand. The pr-ocess of the separation may be witnessed at most of 
the sandy beaches of Lake Supeiioi*, which afford this sand in great quan- 
tities. Tiie best time for collecting it is immediately after the waves have 
subsided, when it may be taken in many places perfectly pure, before 
wind, or other accident, has mixed it again with the other sand. 

This evening was chilly — 42° in the air, and 52° in the water. Fahrenheit. 

June 19. — Loft the Riviere a Misere at three o'clock in the morning. 
The sandy shore continued for about twelve miles, and terminated in a 
perpendicular bank of sandstone, eight oi- ten feet high, which is the south- 
west point in the traverse of the great bend of the shore that we had just 
coasted. Turning this, our dii'cction changed to S. 35° W.; the shore was 
slightly curved, and presented the same bank and beach as the preceding 
bay, with the same green forest back. We reached the Ontonagon river 
at eleven o'clock A. M., distant from our encampment twenty-four miles. 
The bank, for some distance before we reached the river, was very low, 
and the beach showed more of the iron sand than we had seen at any 
other part of the lake. The water for the same distance was shoal and tur- 



22 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 



bid, and of a dark brown color, which became more deeply tinted as we 
approacljed the mouth of the river. I'he river is about seventy yards 
broad at its mouth, and nearly on a level with the low banks and plains 
of barren sand which extend in an area of fifteen or twenty acres, on each 
side of the mouth. It is deep, and has a gentle current, excepting at the 
very mouth, v\here it Is discharged into the lake, over a shoal sand bar, in 
a strong current. 

Of all the numerous little streams of the lake, which are, not very 
properly, dignified with the name of " rivers," this is the most considera- 
ble of the southern slutre, to Fond du Lac liver ; and 3 et it is only naviga- 
ble for canoes 38 miles, and in that distance has many difficult rapids. 
It has been noticed by all the travellers of the lake, from Baron La Hon- 
tan's to the present time, for the remarkable mass of native copper found 
lying on its shore about forty miles from its mouth, and for the supposed 
mines of copper which this mass seemed to indicate in its vicinity. This 
mass, 01* *' copper rock," as it has been called, has been so often visited 
and describee', that it has lost a great part of the interest and curiosity 
which it at first excited ; and the majiy unsuccessful searches for copper 
mines, in its vicinity, have nearly exploded the theory of their existence, 
the mass referred to being the only trace of copper that has been 
discovered on the river. Doctor Houghton and myself were induced to 
abandon the project of an excursion to the " rock" at this time, as it 
would have had the effect of detaining the whole party, at least, two 
days.* 

This river is also interesting, and has been frequently noticed for its 
sturgeon fishery. A band of Chippewa Indians have made it their prin- 
cipal dependence for subsistence, as far back as the observations of tra- 
vellers have extended, and, probably, for a much longer time. The 
Indians now here, and who still subsist, principally, on these fish, are 
about seventy-six in number. Their weir or sturgeon dam is in the same 
place that Henry found it, about seven miles from the mouth of the river, 
and is built with poles stuck in the mud of the bottom, so close together 
as to prevent the stujgeon's passing between them, inclined a little down 
stream, and kept in place at top by transverse poles, to which they are 
bound with bark, the transverse poles being supported by forked braces, 
jjlaced below, and inclined up stieam. The Indians stand upon supports 
attached to the weir, and catch the fish with books, fastened to long poles, 
which they move about in the water, at the base of the weir, till tliey feel 
the fish against them, when the fish is hooked up by a sudden jerk of the 
pole. Tiie weir is placed at the foot of the first rapid, and, when the fisli 
are ascending, has an opening made in it to allow them to go up, but 
which is closed wlien the fisli are descending, and it is at this season that 
most of them are taken. The water of the river is turbid and of a dark 
brown color, which prevents fishermen from seeing the fisli, or being seen by 
them. The fish taken here are from two to four feet in length, and are 
as abundant now as they ever were : and the Indians rely so exclusively 
on this fishery, that they hunt but little, and make no effort to cultivate the 
soil beyond the raising of a few potatoes, which ai-e consumed almost as 
soon as grown. The river presents narrow alluvial bottoms for some 
miles up, \ery rich and favorable for the growing of corn, but they are 

* On our return, Doctor H. and myself made this trip ; for an account of which, see my 
journal from August 13 to August 16. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 23 

entirely neglected. When the Indians were asked wliy they did not raise 
corn, they replied that they had no seed ; but this was only ehiding the 
question, for if they had ever manifested a disposition to cultivate it, their 
trader would soon have supplied the seed, as its successful cultivation 
there would save him the trans|)ortation of a quantity of it from Mackinac 
for their subsistence and his own. 

These Indians looked strong and healthy, but they had a dirty, greasy 
appearance, and exhaled a loitid odor-, from the oil of the sturgeon. 
Thoy had tlieir village at tlie mouth of the river where Mr. Schoolcraft 
held a council with them, in his tent, soon after our arrival ; gave them 
some tobacco, and had tliem all vaccinatt^d. He told them, if they would 
follow him to La Pointe, where he would open some goods, he would give 
them presents, but they objected to this mode of receiving them, and 
thought it more consonant V ith a i)roper pride and self-respect to have 
the presents distributed on their own grounds ; seeing, however, their ob- 
jections of no avail, they sacriticed their pride to their cupidity, and agreed 
to send a canoe witli us, for the promised articles. We also met a chief 
liere frjm Lac du Flambeau, to whom Mr. Schocdcraft had given a medal 
last year, who made a speech to Mr. S. in council, and stated, among 
other things, that he was then on his way to the Saut de Ste. Marie, to 
deliver iiimsclf up to Mr. S. for a murder that had been committed by 
one of his band on a Frenchman, and to get advice in the matter from the 
agent ; he exj)i'cssed great regret that the murder had occurred, and repre- 
sented the ditiiculty of governing and restraining his young men. He said 
the other chiefs would not assist liim to take the murderer, and bring him 
out, and he was unable to do it alone. Mr. S., in reply, represented that 
the Piesident would be very angry when he should learn of this murder, 
and advised that every effort should be made to bring the murderer to the 
Saut, and give iiim up to the agent ; and for the present his best course 
would be to return lo his band, and use his inftuence and power to 
secui-e this murderrr, and prevent further aggressions. 

This chief, also, consented to follow us to La Pointe to get some pre- 
sents, and promised to pursjje the advice of Mr. Schoolcraft. 

The Ontonagoji band numbers hvevty warriors ; tiiey are too remote 
from the frontiers of their tribe to engage in the border wai-fare of the 
Chippcwas and Sioux, and may be considered as at peace. They are sup- 
})lied by their trader, one of Mr. Holiday's cleiks, with blankets, ammu- 
nition, &c., and provisions when they hunt. They never get many furs, 
hut had taken more tlie [)revious winter than usual : principally otter, 
martens, muskrats, and beaver. Their principal chief had died a short 
time before, and was universally regretted. The trading house stood on 
?n eminence on t!je east side of the river; the trader had gone with his 
lurs to Keeway wenon bay, to Mr, Holiday. 

From tlie Ontonagon, our course, S. 70° W., traversed a deep indentation 
of tlie shore, and struck it again at a distance of 18 miles, after passing 
the mouth of Iron river, 15 miles from the former. We then coasted, in 
the dark, a low rocky shore of sand rock, for 12 miles more, and reached 
the mouth o( Carp river at 2 o'clock in the morning, where Mr, S. with 
his canoe had preceded the boats in the evening, and encamped. I could 
find no harbor in the datk shore, nor a place among the rocks where the 
boat would have been an instant secure, if a wind should have arisen, and 
was forced to continue travelling till I reached the encampment of Mr. S. 



24 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

But this is not the first lime, during the voyage, that I have felt the 
want of a guide in my boat, wiiose knowledge of harbors and distance* 
might save such unnecessary exposures. 

Carp river is quite a small stream, barely admitting boats in its rocky 
mouth, and drains a part of the Porcupine mountains that rise a few mile& 
back. We saw the tops of these mountains before we reached the Ontona- 
gon, at a distance of more tiian 40 miles, when they appeared like a long 
high ])oint, running far out into the lake. On approaching them, however, 
the apj)earance of a projecting point was found to be an illusion, produced 
by the lowness of the land between us and them, w hich prevents its being 
seen at the same time; by their oblique direction to the sliore and our 
course, and, perhaps, by those nearest the lake being higher than those 
back, which would have the effect, at a distance, of making the range 
seemingly more perpendicular to the shore than it really is. These 
mountains are near two thousand feet higii, and are granite. The sand- 
stone of the siiore rises towards them more and moie as we approach 
their bases, and is the same red sandstone that has been noticed on many 
parts of the coast that we have passed. They come down to the lake a 
few miles beyond Carp river, and form sevei'al miles of the coast, fre- 
quently showing a bare surface, but generally covered with a luxuriant 
heavy forest, similar to that of the country about their base, which is 
maple, birch, ])ine, and aspen poplar. Notwithstanding a detention of 
three houis at the Ontonagon river, we have tiavelled to-day a distance 
of 54 miles. 

June 20. — Left Carp river at 6 A. M. and in direction S. S0°. W. 
crossed alittlesandy bay, with high banks, to Prescjuelsle river, adistanceof 
six miles. This is one of the largest rivei's of the lake, and has its clian- 
nel from its mouth in a deep ravine of the Poicupine mountains, which 
here rise immediately from the lake. I went up the river a mile to see 
two perpendicular falls that occur in this distaiue ; the first, half a mile 
from the mouth, is 20 feet, and the othei", about half a mile further, is 40 
feet. The ravine is very deep and narrows and the sides of it are so 
thickly covered with a vegetation of large and small trees and bushes, 
that I could not without ditliculty find a point on tiic acclivity below the 
greater fall, fi-om which I could get a distinct view of it; it is exceedingly 
j)icturesquc ; the stream above is much contracted between higii ledges of 
I'ock, and seems to issue out of the mountain ; from which, after running 
a few feet, it is pitched from a shelving sandstone rock into a deep abyss ; 
the water is there dee[), and the current gentle for about one hundred 
yards below, when it is ur-ged with gr'eat violence over successive broken 
ledges of the same rock, until it r-eaches the next fall of twenty feet ; from 
which it contirmes irr a rapid current over br-oken rocks almost to its 
mouth. The quantity of water* discharged over* these falls is as gr-eat as 
that of the Trentorr falls in New York, and the scener-y is eqirally beautiful 
and inter-esting. Between the two falls the river has another channel, to the 
east, now dry, but which dischar-ges a portion of its water's, iir time of 
floods, by another mouth : and hence the name ''Picsque Isle river*." 

Six miles fr'om this river is Black river, a small str-eam that drairrs the 
south side of the Porcuj)ine mountains. We passed this river two or thi-ee 
miles to the left of our cour'se, (S. 60° W.) and struck the shore at a dis- 
tance of ten or tw elve miles fr-orn Pr-esque Isle river*, where the sandstone 
rock is again seen, seven or eight feet above the surface of the water, and 



f Doc. No. 323. ] 25 

inclined up towards the mountains at angles of SO or 40 degrees ; a bank 
of sand rests on it, and in a few miles tlie rock disappears entirely : and 
the sajid bank, attaining an elevation of 80 or 90 feet, encloses the Mon- 
treal bay, at the bottom of which is Montreal river, twenty-one miles 
from Black river. We left thfe shore at the eastern cape of tliis bay, and 
made a traverse of twenty-one or twenty-two miles, in a direction due 
west, to the island of La Pointe ; thus leaving Montreal river and Mau- 
vaise river of the same bay very far to the left. Montreal river is one of 
the largest of the lake, but, from its numerous falls and rapids, its naviga- 
tion is not practicable, excepting near its source ; and tlie route of the 
traders of Lac du Flambeau, up tiiis river, starts froui its mouth, in a 
portage of near 50 miles 120 pauses. Seven or eight hundred yards 
from its mouth, it has a pei-pendicular fall of 14 feet, below which the 
Indians have a stiii'geon weir, like tliat at tiie Ont()nag(»n. 

Twelve miles furtiier round the bay is Mauvaise river, navigable for 
canoes 100 miles, which formed a part of Mr. Schoolcraft's route last 
year. 

We reached La Pointe island at 10 o'clock at night, having travelled 
to-day a distajice of 54 miles by the shore, but which was much shortened 
by our great traverse of Montreal bay. 

June 2,1. — Mr. Schoolcraft, having some business to transact with the 
Indians of this place, and those that followed us from the Ontonagon, we 
did not leave until the afternoon. Tlie island of La Pointe. on which we 
encamped, is the first and largest of a group of about twenty others, which 
extend about thirty miles farther towards Fond du Lac, and nearly lock 
the coast for this distance, lying at distances between one and five miles 
from the main land. This island has some three or four names on the 
maps ; as, Montreal, St. Michael's, Middle island, &c., but is called the 
" Island of La Pointe" by all the traders and voyageurs, and any change 
from this name would only lead to confusion, and is improper; the name 
is taken from La Pointe Chegoimegon, a long point that runs out from 
the main land, from tlie south, to w ithin about a mile of the island, the 
name of wiiich is abbreviated, and called »* La Pointe." Point Ciiegoime- 
gon separates Chegoimegon bay from Montreal bay, whicli we crossed to 
reach the island, the former being a bay of 10 or 12 miles depth, and lying 
south of tlie island. 

This island was, in former times, a place of rendezvous for the Chippe- 
wa tribe, where they held great councils on matters which concerned the 
whole nation. It was also the residence of a large aiid powerful band. 
But a change of national j)olicy, by which the several bands act less in 
concert, and a general impoverislimcnt of the country in their peculiar 
means of subsistence, has destroyed its iniportance as a place of general 
council, and reduced its particular band to about one hundred and eighty- 
four souls, who are dispersed about the bays and islands in the vicinity, 
and subsist almost entirely on fish, excepting at the time of their winter 
hunts, when their trader furnishes tiiem with corn and flour. They take 
sturgeon from Montreal river, and small fish from this and Mauvaise river, 
and whitefish and trout fronj the lake, which latter tliey take in gill nets. 
They have at present between thirty and forty warriors, and are at peace, 
the Sioux, their natural enemies, being too remote for their excursions. 
They are supplied with all the articles of Indian trade, by American trad- 
ers, who also get all their furs. 
4 



26 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

Their present trader is Mr. Warren, a gentleman of the American Fur 
Company, who makes this his residence, and the head quarters of an ex- 
tensive department and district, embracing the extent of country S. W. of 
La Pointe, between Snake and St. Croix rivers, and Lac Courte Oseille 
and Chippewa river. The vahie of his trade, annually, is as follows : 
At the post of La Pointe S2.000, or 250 beaver skins, 500 martens, 50 
bears, 1,000 to 1,500 rats, and 20 or SO otters, all of excellent quality. 
At the posts on the St. Croix, S4,000, principally rats, bears, and otters, 
witjj a few martens, raccoons, deerskins, foxes, fishers, and beaver. At 
Snake river post §1,000, same furs as at St. Croix river. At Lac Courte 
Oseille and Lac Chetac §1,500, principally bears, otter, martens, rats, 
fishers, and minks. At Chippewa river and Lac Vassale S2,500, same furs 
as the last, but more beavei*. The furs of Chippewa river and Lac Courte 
Oseille are of a better quality tlian those farther towards tlie Mississippi, 
as of the St. Croix and Siiake rivers. The wliole seven posts under Mr. 
Warren yield annually about eleven thousand dollars worth of furs; but 
each post requires a clerk and some men, and consequent expense, inso- 
much that the trade is by no means as profitable as it would at first seem 
to be 

The Indians of this department, excepting those about Lake Superior, 
subsist chiefly on wild rice aiid game, such as deer, bears, &c., and gene- 
rally also supply their particular trader with these articles of provisions. 

Mr. Warren has lived for a number of years at his present residence 
on the island of La Pointe, and has given to this little spot an appearance 
of civilization. lie has built a large, comfortable dwelling, a storehouse, 
and eight or ten outhouses, which, with the houses of a Mr. Cadotle and 
family, and those of the subagent, formerly at La Poitite, make almost a 
village. All the buildings are handsomely situated, on a rise of ground, 
about two hundred yards from the lake, and immediately bark of them 
are cultivated and enclosed fields, in wliichoats, peas, beans, potatoes, &c. 
were growing finely. Wheat would grow here, but the want of means to 
make it into flour prevents its cultivation. The season is too short, and 
the soil too light, to grow corn with any success. The soil of the island 
is nearly as good as any that I have seen oji the lake, but it is light and 
sandy, and would be tliought poor land in Ohio or Indiana. It, however, 
j)roduces a good luxuriant grass, (genus alojjecurus,) which, 1 observed, 
Mr. Warren had api)ropriated in the raising of horses and cows. The 
timber is sugar-maple, birch, and pine. 

Tliere was a mission established on the island last summer, by the Pres- 
byterian Board of Foreign Missions, and Mr. Hall, the minister then 
sent out, was here now with his lady. The plan and object of this mis- 
sion is to convert the Indians to the doctrines of Cliristianity, by preach- 
ing ; and to teach a school for their children, at which the latter are to be 
clothed, and subsisted, and educated, at the expense of the Mission Board 
and other charities. It is purposed to teach tliem the rudiments of the 
English language, and to read and write in their own. 

Mr. Hall's progress, however, in the accomplishment of these benevo- 
lent ends, has not iiitherto been very flattering. The Indians have mani- 
fested rather an aversion for his doctrines, and a disposition not to listen 
to his advice. All that lived on the island left it soon after he arrived, and 
they had learned his motives ; and a fear for their own peculiar institutions, 
or some other cause, still keeps them in a great measure aloof from him. 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 27 

They refuse to come to church, or to attend divine worship, and the only 
direct means now left him of operating on tijeir minds to his purpose, is to 
visit them at their villages and in their lodges, whei-e, by making their 
-ijospifality subserve, he is kindly received, and listened to with seeming 
attention, but still with little or no apparent effect: none of the Indians 
having as yet shown any willingness to embrace his doctrines, excepting 
<jiie Indian man. who has been for some time laboring under a severe disease 
of the lungs. ISlr. Hall is not however discouraged, but hopes, by means 
of his school, and other efforts, to effect many beneficial results. His school 
at present contains twelve scholars, all quite young and mostly half breeds, 
the Indians having shown also an unwillingness to give him their children 
to instruct. 

This mission at La Pointe, and Mr. Bingham's at Saut de Ste. Marie, 
are the only missions that I know of in the Chipj)ewa countiy. The 
former has been established several years. The means and efforts at 
each have been similar, and like unproductive. And, until more successful 
methods can be adopted by both to accomplish the benevolent designs of 
tiiose contributing to their support, the propriety of sustaining them at such 
great expense may well be questioned. 

These northern Indians are generally wild, untamed, and unsubdued ; they 
have none of the arts, institutions, or manners of the whites ; and their 
prejudices in favor of their own peculiar habits and institutions, which 
have descended to them from their forefathers, are engrafted and rooted in 
their very nature, insomuch that their removal, by the ordinary means of 
teaching, jjreaching, and advice, is rather a speculative theory than a re- 
sult that experience teaches us to expect. The good and humane motives 
of t!ie missionai'ies to these Indians cannot be doubted, but the propriety 
and efficacy of their method of proceeding in their work of conversion, 
may be fairly judged of and estimated by the effects actually produced; 
and these, so far as my observation and experience extend, are by no 
means proportionate to the expense and labor employed. 

The present condition of most of the Chippewa Indians is deplorable. 
They are mostly \ery poor. Their country is becoming every day more 
exhausted of the means of subsistence hitherto used, and they are making 
no preparations to provide any othei's. Something seems necessary to be 
done by humanity, to prepare them for the approacliing condition of their 
country, and to protect them fi'om its threatened calamities. The first 
thing that a view of their actual condition suggests, is to teach them to 
cultivate the soil, and obtain in this way a subsistence, which their impo- 
verisiied woods and forests must vei'y soon refuse to their increased popu- 
lation. This would lead them gradually from their wild pursuits and pre- 
carious mode of living, and lay the foundation for the adoption of other 
customs of civilized life, and among them perha])s Christianity. The In- 
ifdians cannot be inchiced to make a change in tlieir habits and manners, 
unless the advantage be immediate and tangible, and is made evident to 
their senses. Their prejudices in favor of tlieir own way of thinking and 
acting, are too strong to be easily eradicated : and to expect to effect an 
entire change of their opinions and habits, by appeals to their understand- 
ing, in tke mannei* of preaching Cliristianity, is to expect more than a 
knowledge of Indian character will justify. And as long as the missiona- 
ries pursue their present method with the Chippewa Indians, so long will 
their exertions be, in a measure, useless ; and until an entirely new system 



28 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

is adopted and pursued, no extensive or permanent change in this people 
need be expected. 

Near the present mission, on the island of La Pointe, are the traces of 
an old missionary establishment, occupied by the Jesuit missionaries, at ^ 
very early period of the settlement of Canada. Very few vestiges of th6 
principles tliere taught, however, aie now to he discovered in the manners 
or charactei's of the Indians at present in the vicinity. 

Mr. Hall has not yet constructed any buildings for his establishment, 
but at present occupies houses of Mr. Warren, for a school and dwelling. 
Notwithstanding their remote situation, he and Mrs. Hall seem contented, 
cheerful, and happy; although, with regard to Mrs. Hall, there is not a 
single white woman or female that speaks her language, within hundreds 
of miles of her. Mr. Boutwell, the reverend gentleman who is travelling 
witli us, is to stop and remain with this mission, on our retui'n. 

We left the islaiul at 6 o'clock P. M. The channel between the island 
and the main land, to the west, is from three to five miles broad. Oup 
course through it was due north, to a point of the main land, ten miles 
ahead, where the shore begins to bend off to the northwest. But, seeing 
that I could not reach the main land before dark, I turned a little to the 
east of the proj)er course, and encamped on a small island about eight 
miles from La Pointe. Mr. Schoolcraft, with the other boat, crossed the 
channel, and encamped on the main land. The island of my encampment 
is called Spirit island, and is held in sacred veneiation by the Indians, in- 
somuch that they never hunt or encamp on it. It is about two miles long; 
its banks rise steeply from the lake, and it is covered all over with a thick, 
heavy forest of yellow pine. Doctoi' Houghton, who had gone in the 
morning in Mr. Schoolcraft's canoe, to vaccinate the Indians of a village 
at the bottom of Chegoimegon bay, overtook me about 1 1 o'clock at night, 
and went on to Mr. S. 

June 22. — Left our encampment at 3 o'clock A. M. and in about six 
miles came up with Mr. Schoolcraft and party, encamped in a sandy hay 
that they had reached the night before. In a few miles more, we passed 
all of the group of islands, called sometimes the Twelve Apostles. They are 
beautifully situated with resjject to each other, are all high, and covei-ed 
with a luxuriant growth of vegetatioti, and form the most interesting fea- 
ture of this j)art of the lake. Twenty-five miles from La Pointe, we passed 
a rocky bluff point of sandstone rock, called the Detour, from which the 
Great Fond du Lac bay may be considered as conimencing. Our course 
here chatiged to soutii 80° west, and we could see distinctly the mountains 
on the opposite side of the bay and lake. Here we met a Mackinac boat, 
with Mr. Abbott, a trader from Leech lake, who said the returns from 
that quarter were principally hears this year ; and that the Leech lake 
Indians had lately gone on a war excursion against the Sioux. At 1 o'clock 
passed Birch Bark point, a flat, prominent point, that is midway betweet/. 
La Pointe and Fond du Lac river, and hence, frequently, called Middle 
point. It has steep, sandy banks, ten or fifteen feet high, resting on sand 
rock, and is coveied with a small growth of birch, aspen, and some large 
dead timber. The whole shoi-c to-day is much serrated, forming deep, 
sandy bays, with regularly curved shores and high banks of sand. The 
prominent points showed mostly an imj)erfect red sandstone, sometimes in 
perpendicular bluffs twenty or thirty feet high. High hills are seen to 
the left, but the forest does not present the rich verdure of the mountains 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 29 

round La Pointe, and of the lake generally. Ourcomse from Birch Bark 
point was S. 60° W. and we encamped at sunset, on a beach of dark sand- 
stone gravel, having come to-day filty- eight miles. Mr. Schoolcraft and 
])arty encamped ahead. We passed to-day Raspberry river, Cranberry 
£reek, and Sandy river. 

* June 23. — Following a plain shore about three miles, I came to an In- 
tlian village, at the mouth of Bois Biule river, where Mr. Schoolcraft had 
encamped the previous evening. From this river tlie shore is sandy, very 
regular, and falls off to the south, but our course to Fond du Lac river was 
more to the west, and left the shore many miles. The beach and bank 
round the end of the bay are very low and flat, and the entrance to Fond 
du Lac river is not discernible a sjjort distance from the shore. I was 
near missing the entrance, by being in some degree guided by Farmer's 
map of Michigan, on which this bay and the enti-ance, like most of the 
coast, are very inaccurately delineated. I had approached very near, and 
was sailing past it, when Mr. Schoolcraft, who was there waiting for me, 
atti'acted me to it by making signals with flags. We entered the river 
about 10 o'clock A. M. having come from our encampment of last night 
twenty-four miles ; and, exposed as we have been on the lake, for the last 
sixteen days, we were glad to leave it. My boat being slower than the 
other, and both slower than Mr. Schoolcraft's canoe, the whole party had 
seldom travelled together, and as in my boat I had no guide, or even a 
map of the coast that I could depend on, I was often, in the course of the 
trip, exposed to danger and inconvenience. The difficulties of travelling 
in the night, after I had once or twice experienced them, detei-mined me 
to encamp alone, rather than attempt to overtake Mr. Schoolcraft after 
dark ; and I have, accordingly, been several nights separated from the 
rest of the party. There is very little danger in coasting the south of Lake 
Superior in boats, if there is a peison to guide who is well acquainted with 
the shore, and particularly the position and distances of tlje harbors. The 
harbors for boats are numerous and good, and notwithstanding the suddenness 
of the rising of storms on the lake, it is easy for a person acquainted with 
the coast, to make a harbor before the lake gets too rwigli for a good boat. 
An accurate map or chart of the coast would also subserve an excellent 
purpose, to avoid accidents and inconvenience, but none such has yet been 
made. The one I have with me (Farmer's) is, perhaps, the most so of 
any yet published, but is far from being a proper guide, and it would be 
dangerous to depend on it for any thing like an accurate delineation of the 
shore, or the relative positions of the numerous bays that must be known 
to enable one to travel in security and safety. The heavy fogs of the lake 
are great annoyances to the voyageur; they are frequently so thick and 
heavy, as to obscure all objects at a distance of twenty or thirty yards, 
and in such cases compel the traveller to hug closely all the sinuosities of 
the shore, which are so numerous, deep, and irregular, as to make the 
% distance more than twice what it would be to cross from point to point. I 
have often, in a fog, run to all points of the compass in less than an hour, 
and have sometimes, on the clearing up, found myself so far in a deep bay, 
that I had twice as far to row, to get out of it, as the distance across it. 
The fogs, too, are often brought up by a wind so suddenly as to leave 
a boat in the traverse of a bay, far from land, and without any point to 
direct the steering. In such cases, if the boat has a comj)ass, the proper 
direction may be preserved ; but, without one, there is danger of going out 



30 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

into the lake. The remerly, tlien, of the practised voyageur is to observe 
the direction of the wind tliat brings the tog with respect to the land, and 
to steer accordingly ; and it is remarkable, that scarcely any of the traders' 
boats carry a compass, when ti»e inconvenience and danger often resulting 
from such neglect must be experienced on every trip. 

The mouth of Fond du Lac river, or "The Entrance,'* as it is called 
by the traders and voyageurs, is about eighty yards broad, but is shallow, 
and would not admit a vessel ot three or four feet draught. It expands 
immediately into two bays, to the right and left, separated from each other 
by a small island near and directly in front of the entrance. The mouth 
seems to be in the very end of the lake, and hence it is properly called 
Fond du Lac river. A river that enters the left bay of The Entrance, is 
also as aptly called "La liiviere a Gauche.** The bays to the right and 
left lie in their length parallel to the shores of the lake, fioni which they 
are only separated by low sandy tongues of land, very much attenuated, 
and sustaining a few little scattering pines. The point to the right, 
entering, is near fifty yards broad near the en<l, but it afterwards narrows, 
and runs back for about two miles, with a breadth of from twenty to forty 
yards. Our course was through the right hand bay, N. 60° W. for four 
miles, to a strait one hundred yards broad, by w hich, in a distance of two 
hundred yards, we entered another bay, long and nairow, and which con- 
tracted gradually to the very narrow, crooked channel of the river. 

There was, formerly, a trading house near the entrance, but it has been 
abandoned and destroyed, and the present house for all the Fond du Lac 
country is twenty miles above. 

The river for this distance is very crooked and winding, but its general 
course up is southwest ; the channel is of variable breadth, and generally 
deep; the shore is irregular, and presents. alternately, on either hand, 
marshes, bluH'sand banks and hills, and is cut up by numerous channels, 
or ♦'pockets," from ten to one hundred yards broad, which run out straight 
and generally perpendicular to the river, frequently extending as far in- 
land as wo could see. These are separated by long tongues or promonto- 
ries, of semi-cylindrical shape, rounded on either fcide up to the summit, 
fifty or sixty feet, and covered with a thick growth of small trees, aspen, 
birch, tamrack, (pinus pendulus,) and other species of pine. Several of 
these singular promontories occur in many places in succession, parallel 
to each other, w ith channels between, and present a formation and appear- 
ance altogether peculiar. 

We arrived at the trading house at 4 o'clock P. M. The river is here 
penetrating a chain of mountains, is more regular in its course, and has 
its channel more confined. The trading house is situated at the base of 
the mountain, on a narrow piece of bottom, three or four hundred yards 
broad, which is rich, and excepting the gardens, where the trader raises 
abundance of potatoes, is covered with a very tall, green, luxuriant grass, 
principally poa compressa.) We met here Mr. Aitkin, the chief of the de- 
partment of the country beyond Fond du Lac, and all his clerks, to the ^ 
number of fifteen or twenty, and their engagees, all just ready to start 
for Mackinac on their regular summer trip. 

This is called the '"Fond du Lac IVst," and was formerly the head 
quarters of an extensive district, called '* The Fond du Lac Department.'* 
The department is still the same, but Mr. Aitkin, of the American Fur 
Company, the principal of it, has removed his head quarters to the Mis- 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 31 

sissippi, at Sandy lake, which is more central in respect to his several 
subordinate j)osts. (See my map.) Tliis is still, however, a place of ren- 
dezvous lor all his clerks, preparatory to their embarking in boats, with 
their annual stock of furs, lor Mackiwac. Here, too, on their return in 
the fall, a partial distribution of the goods is made : the boats ai'e left, and the 
navigation in all diiections begins in bark canoes^ The buildings here 
consist of a dwelling, three or four stores, a large house for the accom- 
modation of tlie clerks, and some other buildings for the engagees, or 
Frenchmen. They are handsomely situated on the bank of the river, 
and diiectly in front is an island, of about two miles circuit, of very rich 
soil, and a forest of large elm, and on which tlie Indians now assembled 
have their lodges. 

Mr. Aitkin very politely gave me the following information in relation 
to his trade, the Indians, &c. 

His department embraces an extent of country from Fond du Lac, 
north to the boundary line, west to Red river, and south to near the falls 
of St. Anthony, on the Mississippi, and contains nine permaJient posts, 
from which returns are made every year, viz. Fond du Lac, Lake Su- 
perior, on the north side, at Grand Portage, Rainy lake, Vermillion 
lake, at the head of Fond du Lac river, Red lake, Pembina settlement 
on Red river. Red Cedar lake, Leech lake, and Sandy lake, Mr. Aitkin's 
residence. For facilities of the trade there are several other smaller posts, 
as at Lake Winnipeg, LakeTravei-s, mouth of Crow Wing river, and others ; 
but these are subordinate, severally, to some one of the larger posts named, 
which is considered as making the whole " return" for its particular 
district. 

Mr. Aitkin's returns of this year are less than usual, and are as fol- 
lows : From Fond du Lac post 82,000, Grand Portage Sl,000, Rainy- 
lake S4,000, Vermillion lake ^2,000, Red lake $2,000, Pembina 
J52,500, Red Cedar lake §1,500, Leech lake S5,000, Sandy lake S5,000. 
The furs from all the posts are of nearly the same kind, and principally 
martens, muskrats, beaver, otter, foxes, and bears; the proportion of bear 
skins this year being very great at most of the posts west of Fond du 
Lac. The whole value of his furs is S25,000 ; and his expenses in procur- 
ing them have been 831,000, leaving a balanceagainst the trade of S(),000» 

The trade of this department is perhaps more precarious than that of 
any other district of the American Fur Company to the north. Here the 
country, and, consequently, the ♦* hunts,'* are most affected by dry and wet 
seasons ; and here the British trader comes in direct competition with the 
American. All along the lines, at Grand Portage, Rainy lake, Lake of 
the Woods, and Pembina, the British traders get the greater part of the furs 
of the American Indians ; and it is represented that even in the interior 
as far as Leech lake, Winnipeg lake. Red lake, and Vermillion lake,^ 
they secure a great part of the trade by inducing the Indians to carry their 
furs to them across the line. Tliis is done by paying more for them than 
American traders can afford to pay ; by a free use of whiskey, which is a 
most potent article in Indian trade, and which is prohibited to American 
traders, except in small quantities, at a few frontier posts ; and by a 
skilful fostering and management of a strong feeling of attachment which 
all the Indians of this district are represented to entertain for the British 
Government and the Hudson Bay Company. 

The Indians at Fond dii Lac, ^Grand Portage, Vermillion lake, and 



32 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

Sandy lake, are chiefly subsisted by the traders. At the other posts of 
this department they have abundance of fish and large animals of the fo- 
rest, and live comfortably. At Red lake they sell great quantities of 
corn to their trader, which is sent off to other posts. 

The population of the Fond du Lac band is 193, of whom about 45 are 
warriors. Tiiey ai'e, however, at peace, as they are too far from the 
Sioux to go against them. Their country is very poor in all animals for 
food, and their particular trader furnishes most of their living ; the rest 
they get from the fish of the lake ; whitefish and trout, which they take in 
^ill nets, and from the few furred animals they kill. Since the stoppage 
of whiskey in the ti-ade, they are increasing very rapidly ; there being 
morechildien born, and fewer deaths among them, from neglect of drunken 
mothers. They are miserably poor ; and althougii their country is, in a 
measure, exhausted, and must soon refuse a sup|)ly to their increasing 
wants, they have not reflection, or foresight, or providence enough to save 
themselves from starvation, by cultivating the soil ; which, in many parts, 
is rich, and would, with little labor, afford them abundance. 

There are about 150 Indians encamj)ed on the island here at present; 
some of them belong to Sandy lake, and some came with us from Bois 
Brule river. Among the latter is an Indian of some distinction. Yellow 
Bead, from Red Cedar lake, who was on his way to visit the agent at 
Fort Brady, but is now returning with us. 

The Indians of other posts of Mr. Aitkin's department, through which 
"we are to pass, will be more particularly spoken of when we reach them. 
This being Sunday, Mr. Boutwell preached to the Indians through the in- 
terpreter. 

June 25 — The Indians assembled early in the morning, and regaled 
<is with their usual dance, after which Mr. Schoolcraft held a council and 
talk with them, and distributed a few presents. Mr. Aitkin embarked all 
his furs in seven large Mackinac boats, all well manned, and each under 
the command of a clerk, and started them down the lake. Many of his 
Frenchmen have Indian wives and families, who are left here till they 
return. 

Mr. Schoolcraft made an arrangement with Mr. Aitkin for bark canoes 
for the transportation of our whole party above, which we will receive 
at the head of the Portage, and, as my men are entirely ignorant of their 
managemejit, he has employed three Indians to go with me to Sandy lake. 
We embarked in our boats, and ascended the river, over several rapids, 
two miles farther, to the foot of the grand portage of Fond du Lac river, 
the head of boat navigation. From here Mr. S. sent his boat back to the 
Saut, by Canadians, whom he had brought along for the ])nrpose ; and I 
«mployed an Indian to take mine back to the mouth of the Bois Brule 
river, where we purpose to strike the lake again, returning. Here a new 
scene commenced. Our baggage and provisions for sixty days were to be 
transported by cairying over a rough portage of nine miles. This was a 
familiarbusiness withMr. Schoolcraft's Canadians, but entirely new to the 
soldiers ; the manner of the carrying being altogether different from any 
thing they had ever experienced. For this purpose the pork had previously 
been put up in kegs, containing about 75 lbs. each, and the flour in bags 
of about SO lbs. 'I he mode of cairying is by a leather strap called a 
*' portage collar," composed of a broad piece that is apj)licd to the fure- 
iiead, and two long tags, which attach to the piece to be carried. «' Ji load*' 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 33 

for a Frenchman consists of two " pieces,'* when the pieces are of con- 
venient shape, as a keg of pork and a bag of flour, (from 160 to 200 lbs.) 
The first to which the portage collar is fastened, is adjusted to rest on 
the lumbar vertebrse, or small of the back; and the second when practi- 
cable, as in case of the bag, is placed longitudinally, one end resting on 
the keg, and the other along the back of the head, so that when the body 
is stooped, in the manner of carrying, the weight of the bag is between 
the shoulders, near tlie hack of the neck; the second piece is also fre- 
quently placed transversely on the shoulders, but always, if practicable, 
in such a maimer as to rest its weight \evy far uj) towards the neck ; 
when the load is not so adjusted as to sustain the head against the force of 
the portage collar to draw it back, it is supported by the hands clasped 
behind it. 

The experience of traders, and observation of the manner of the Indi- 
ans, have proved this to be the most convenient way of carrying, 
in this country. It is accordingly practised by all ; and every thing to 
be transported over portages, is j)ut up with a view to this method of the 
portage collar. All the portage mads, too, are selected with the same view. 

The portage was commenced by ascending a hill 100 feet high, with an 
acclivity of about 45°. No pains have ever been bestowed to make a road 
up it; and the ascent is by means of little imperfect steps, just large 
enough for the toes, that w ind up the hill without any regularity as to di- 
rection or relative position. The Frenchmen commenced with full loads, 
but the soldiers, excepting one or two, were permitted to carry only half 
loads, or one piece, and even this was found to be more than some of them 
were equal to. One of them, a very strong man, fell on the hill with a 
keg of pork, and was disabled.* 

The portage road, after the hill, w-as rough, narrow and crooked — a 
mere uncut path through bad woods, but we got over three pauses, or a 
mile and a half of it, and encamped on the bank of the river, at a place 
called the *' Roche Galet," from the flat sandstone rock over which the river 
here runs. A number of Indians followed us from Fond du Lac house, and 
encamped with us. 

June 26. — We commenced carrying at four o'clock in the morning, and 
continued it until near sunset, or eight o'clock in the afternoon, and passed 
over twelve pauses, of near half a mile each. The portage road continued 
a little, narrow, crooked path, with bushes crowding it on either side, 
winding round trees, through marshes, over ridges, and across ravines, and 
presenting all the irregularities and inconveniences of a rude trail through 
difficult woods. There has been little or no cutting to clear it out, and all 
the bridging consists of a few small poles, laid in the length of the path, 
which serve rather to annoy than to assist the passenger. No idea can be 
formed of the difficulty of this portage without witnessing it. The men, 
with heavy loads, are sometimes forced to wade through a swamp of 
half a mile, full of roots and bushes, and over their knees in mire at every 
step. And where the road is dry, it is generally over a hill, or across a 
gulley, the steep banks of which are worse to pass than the swamps. 

When we stopped at night, my men, and even tlie Canadians, were lite- 
rally fagged out. Two of the soldiers had snagged their feet, and were 

* This man, Beemis, was kept in hospital more than a year after his return, in consequence 

of this fall, and was subsequently discharged, at Fort Dearborn, on u surgeon's certificate 
of disability. 



34 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

disabled, and all of them were galled in the back, by the kegs, in such a 
degree as to make their loads very painful ; and yet they have carried 
ordy half loads all the day ; whereas the Frenchmen and some of the Indi- 
ans have carried full loads each time. Jt requires an experience of years 
to habituate men to carrying in this way ; and the life and habits of sol- 
diers by no means fit them for such labor. 

I had foui- or live Indian women, and as many Indian men, carrying fop 
me, and without these 1 would not have made half the distance. Tiie In- 
dian women carry better than the men, being less indolent, and more ac- 
customed to it. I saw a small young Indian woman, at the close of the 
day, carry a keg of one thousand musket ball cartridges, for a distance of 
one mile, without resting, and most of the distance through swamp that 
■was fiequently over her knees ; this too after having carried heavy loads 
all day, and when, with less exertion than she had made, my strongest 
jnen vvere exhausted. 

We encamped on the portage near a creek, which enabled us to wash off 
.a little of the mud of the swamps, which we had carried with us all the 
day. Doctor Houghton had many cases of strains, bruises, and snagged 
feet, this evening. 

June 27. — Owing to the excessive fatigues of yesterday, we did not re- 
commence the carrying till six o'clock, though tlie sun rose at four. We 
Lad four regular pauses to make yet, to the end of the portage, which, for 
greater ease, were divided into six ; there was more mud and )nire on the 
thiee first than on those of yesterday ; the last, only, was dry and good. 
We accomplished the whole, and arrived at the end of the portage by 
twelve o'clock, where we encamped, and employed the rest of the day in 
getting out oui* canoes, and making arrangements to travel in them. 

The general direction of this portage has been a little west of northwest ; 
Jeavine: the river in some parts four or five miles, and touching it but 
once, at La Roche Galet, from the commencement. It is on the nortli 
side of the river, and tlie land about it is rich, excepting the swamps. In 
some places we passed gi'oves of sugar-maple, but the general growth 
is bitch and pine ; some of the latter being very laige and beautiful, 
measuring eighteen feet in circumference at the base. The length of the 
|)ortage is nivic miles, which is divided into nineteen pauses; the term 
-** pause" being applied to the distance between two resting places, and 
ihence the jiause is the unit of measure for all portages. We have passed 
ijy, in this distance, many rapids and falls of the river; and a perpendi- 
cular fall, said to be thirty feet. The river is still rapid at tlie head of 
the portage, and shows in its banks and bed a coarse, hard, argillite rock, 
in place. 

June 28. — The necessary arrangements for travelling in our hark ca- 
noes having been completed the previous evening, we embarked in them 
at seven in the morning. I have two canoes, in which I have distributed, 
equally, my men and their provisions and baggage, with two Indians in one, 
in the bow and stei^n, and one Indian in the other, in which 1 go myself. 

The river for three miles, to Portage a Couteaux, is a series of difficult 
rapids ; and my men, totally unaccustomed to canoes, had gieat difficul- 
ty in ascendir;g them, being obliged for this purpose to wade in the rapids, 
and drag or push them along. The river, in this distance, runs over 
argillite rock, which rises on both sides of the channel, with strata near- 
Jy verlical, in high broken and precipitous banks, presenting a scenery 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 35 

altogether peculiar to this kind of rock. The Portage a Couteaux, or knife 
portage, commences on the west side of tjje river, at the foot of a rapid, 
too strong to be ascended in canoes, and in which tlie channel of the river 
is divided by a small island, of the argellite ; rising, abruptly, to a height 
of about 100 feet, from a base of but little gi-eater diameter ; which, piled 
up, as it is, in the utmost confusion and irregularity, with many small ce- 
dars and pines, that have taken feeble tenure between the vertical strata 
of the rock, projecting from its rugged sides, in all directions, is remark- 
able and picturesque. 

The portage begins by a steep ascent of the argillite rock, which 
is seen bare along the greater part of the path, inaking it broken 
and difficult; but, being dry nearly all the way, it is much preferable to 
any part of the gi'and portage below. It is but three pauses, or a mile and 
a half in length, and has been aptly called " Portage a Couteaux," from the 
knife-like effect of the slates on the shoes and moccasins of the voyageurs. 
It runs along a ridge, and the land on each side is low, swampy, and 
good for nothing. 

The rapids were strong for two or three miles above the portage, and 
filled with boulders of hornblende rock which made their ascent, by the 
■method of wading, very difficult, the men frequently slipping from the 
rocks, and plunging over their heads in the water — in great danger of 
drowning, but much to the amusement of my Indian guides. After the 
rapids, was a broad, smooth river of gentle current, and banks of the 
richest soil, supporting a fine growth of maple, elm, ash, poplar, Ace, 
which denoted the rich character of the country. The Indians gave us to 
understand that this kind of land extended some distance back, and was a 
bear hunting ground. 

We encamped this night nine and a half miles from Portage a Couteaux at 
the foot of another series of rapids, having travelled this day about 13 
miles. 

June. 29 — Started at half past four in the morning, and continued ia 
rapids through argillite rock again, for about four miles, which occupied 
us until 1 1 o'clock. Mr. Schoolcraft and party got ahead of me very fast, 
as they were always enabled to do in rapids, by the sujjerior skill of their 
Canadian voyageurs, who could stand up in the canoes, and pole them 
along ; whereas I, for fear of upsetting, could not allow my men to at- 
tempt this method, but continued the comparatively slow and secure one 
that I at first adopted. My canoes, too, were frequently broken, by the 
awkwardness of the men, allowing them to drive against the rocks ; and 
delay was thus occasioned in making repairs. 

From the narrow rocky channel and steep broken banks of the rapids, 
the river suddenly expanded to thi-ee or four hundred yards breadth, with 
a gentle ctirrent ; the rocks entirely disappeared j the banks were twelve 
or lourteen feet high, and exhibited a character, as to soil and timber, 
similar to that of the smooth part of the river, passed yesterday, and not 
unlike that of some of the Western rivers, with their extensive rich bottoms 
and heavy native forests. It is probable, however, that this land is swampy, 
back, as indicated by the swarms of moschetoes that infested us. 

Mr. Schoolcraft and party kept ahead, and I encamped alone, having 
come about 35 miles. 

June 30. — Passed several rapids, and a country much the same as yes- 
terday, (23 miles,) until we reached the mouth of JSast Savanne river, 



86 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

where our route left Fond du LacriAcr. Mr. S. had encamped here the 
previous night, hut had gone on without waiting for me. 

The East Savanne river is a little, narrow, and very crooked stream, 
having its source in wet meadows and swamps, about 30 miles from its 
mouth, and running in a general direction northeast, in a very direct 
line from Fond du Lac river to Sandy lake, on the Mississippi, where we 
are going ; we accordingly ascended it twenty-four miles to the Savanne 
Portage. The country at fust was low and rich, afterwards njore elevated, 
and some pine ridges, and the last ten or twelve miles was through a wet 
savanne, from a half to two and three miles hroad, bordered by tamrack 
and cedar swamps. The river was from ten to thirty feet broad, and very 
crooked all the way, but particularly so through the sa\anne, where canoes 
might be a mile or more apart in the actual length of the river, and only 
a few yards, in a direct line. The channel was generally seven or eight 
feet deep ; and part of the savanne was so much overflowed that canoes 
could pass over it, through the grass. About a mile below the portage 
the river forks, and the channel, though still deep, is so very narrow and 
crooked that canoes can scarcely turn the shorter bends. The meadow 
here is dry, and is grown over with a most beautiful, luxuriant, and heavy 
growth of grass — a species of carex, or sedge. I landed at the portage 
near the end of this meadow, at 6 P. M., where I found, by a note left for 
me by Doctor Houghton, that Mr. S. having preceded me about six hours, 
had gone through four pauses of the portage to encamp. I got part of the 
baggage through the first pause, and encamped where we landed, in an 
atmosphere of moschetoes. — Journey this day 47 miles. 

July 1, [Sunday.) — It rained constantly, and in torrents, without a 
prospect of cessation ; but the unpleasant situation of our encampment,^ 
and my anxiety to overtake Mr. S., who I knew would not travel to-day,, 
determined me to proceed. At the end of the first pause, which was a 
perfect mud hole tiiroughout, the swamp had water enough to float our 
loaded canoes, and we accordingly embarked them in a little canal or 
channel which had been slightly worn through the sw^amp by the tra- 
velling of the traders, and in which the mud was thin enough to allow 
the canoes, loaded only with our baggage, to be dragged along without 
much difliculty, more than that of wading through the mire. But this, 
was at every step over the knees, and in many places up to the waist. We 
worked our canoes and baggage, in this way, through two pauses, or about 
a mile, as far as we could, and carried the canoes and baggage one pause 
farther, the greater part of which w as a continuation of the swamp, to 
Mr. Schoolcraft's encampment, on a dry ridge. It rained on us all the 
way, and my men were much exhausted, from the difficulty of transport- 
ing the baggage in the manner described. 

July 2. — Tlie ridge of high land, on w hich we were encamped, was hut 
little elevated above the swamps, but was rich and dry, sustaining a heavy 
forest of sugar-maple, birch, and linn. It is the dividing ridge of the 
waters of Lake Superior and the Mississippi. We crossed it in a south- 
west direction, perpendicular to its general I'ange ; but it was not broad, 
and, in less than half a mile from our encampment, we met witii deep, 
ugly swamps, almost as trouhlesome as that we had passed yesterday. 
We had four miles of the portage before us this morning, and Mr. S. 
made great efforts to accomplish the whole of it this day ; and my men, 
in emulation of his voyageurs to travel at the same^ rate, completely ex- 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 37 

liausted themselves long before night. The route was of the worst cha- 
racter, being mostly through swamp of tough deep, mud, which it was difficult 
to walk through unencumbered ; and tliat could scarcely be deemed prac- 
ticable, with the loads that the men were obliged to carry. Thev fre- 
quently stuck fast in the mud until tl)ey abandoned their load, or were 
assisted out,- and before night some of my best and strongest men fell 
down by the road side, unable to proceed fartiier. I collected them and 
the baggage on a dry spot, half a mile from the end of the portage, and 
encamped before sunset. Mr. S. had his tents taken entirely through, 
and encamped on the bank of the West Savanne river; his men encamped 
back with mine. Our journey to-day was three and a hi\lf miles, and 
much the most fatiguing of all our journey since we let home. 

Julij 3 — Although it was late in the morning when the men were re- 
quired to resume the carrying, they still showed, by a tardy, sluggish 
manner, that they were poorly recovered from the gieat fatigues of yes- 
terday. We however get through the remaining |)ause of this horrible 
l)ortage by twelve o'clock, and embarked in the West Savanne river, 
near its source, where it was but a few feet broad, and with only water 
enough to float our canoes. 

The Savanne portage, that we had now crossed, is six miles in length ; 
the first two through a swamp, such as I have described, and the remain- 
ing four over land more elevated, and some little hills and ridges, but with 
deep, ugly swamps intervening, making this much the most troublesome 
and difficult of any part of our route. The highest point crossed by the 
portage, is about one hundred and fifty feet above the Savanne rivers. 

From the place of our embarkation to Sandy lake, was cigiiteen miles. 
The river, in this distance, has a devious course through narrow, low 
meadows, of a little valley between pine hills. Its direction is about 
20° west of south, and about a mile from Sandy lake it receives a small 
river from the east, after which it is thirty yards broad. We passed 
through the length of Sandy lake, which is about five miles, and de- 
scended its outlet, or Sandy lake river, a mile and a half, to its junction 
with the Mississippi, at Mr. Aitkin's trading post, where we arrived at 
4 V. M. and encamped. The trading house is situated on a long, nar- 
row tongue or poijit, which separates the two rivers just before their 
junction. 

It v;as purposed to remain here a day or two, to make some repairs 
and alterations in our canoes, to change our Indian guides, and make 
other necessary arrangements pi-eparatory to our ascending the Missis- 
sippi. We found Mr. Boudoin, one of Mr. A.'s clerks, in charge, who 
received us with great kindness and hospitality, and proffered all the as- 
sistance and information in his power. 

This situation has long been regarded as an important one for the Indian 
trade. It was occupied by the old Northwest Company, and subse- 
quently by the American Fur Company to the present time.* Mr. Aitkin, 
the present agent of the company, makes this his residence, and central 
depot for the great district over whicli he has charge ; the posts and trade of 
which have been described in another part of this journal. His establish- 
ment, at present, consists of a large comfortable dwelling, several store- 
houses, and barns, stables, &c. ; he raises corn and potatoes in fields near 
the house, and has a good stock of cattle. The soil about the lake and 
rivers is rich, but, with the exception of a small portion about the house, 



S8 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

is subject to inundation during the early spring freshets, when Sandy lake^ 
overflows with the Mississipj)i, and the great flood covers the country for 
many miles around. The water was now, however, fifteen feet within 
the banks of the river and lake ; the latter, in its confines, presenting the 
very irregular figure that I have drawn of it on the map. Tlie lake is 
within less than half a mile of the Mississippi, and the length of its outlet, 
Sandy lake river, is only a mile and a half. Just above the junction, 
the latter is fifty yards broad, and the Mississippi seventy-five yards. Just 
below, the Mississippi is one hundred and ten yards. Our journey to-day 
was twenty-five miles. The moschetoes at night were more numerous 
than I had ever seen then. 

July 4. — We found but few Indians here, those belonging to the post 
being mostly at their hunting grounds and fisheries. Mr. S. however 
held a council with those ])resent, and distributed some goods, leaving 
word for the oUier Indians of the band to meet him at the mouth of Crow 
Wing river, three hundred miles below, where we expect to strike the 
Mississip])i, after leaving Leech lake, on our return. I took the opportu-. 
iiity of Mr. Aitkin's workshop and workmen to have four oars put to cacli 
of my canoes, which, when tl»e canoes and streams will admit of them, 
are much better than paddles, particularly for soldiers, who can be much 
easier taught to use the former. In fact, my men continued very awk- 
ward in the use of the paddle ; and had it not been for my Indian steers- 
men, I could not have continued thus far with the expedition. 1 disciiarged 
here the three Indians who had come witli me from Fond du Lac, and 
Mr. S. procured me two others, to go as far as Leech lake. 

We embarked in the Mississippi at 6 P. M. and ascended it twenty miles, 
in which distance it winds, deviously, thiough a valley of low, rich, allu- 
vial bottom, of the best quality of soil, and beautifully timbered : but all 
subject to inundation. 

July 5. — The river (his day was of the same character as the part ascended 
yesteiday, crooking through a low, rich bottom, from one to two miles 
broad, boi-dered by pine hills and swamps ; the shores covered with a rich 
vegetation of soft maple, elm, walnut, linn, asii, &c. and a luxuriant 
grass, wiiich clothed the banks in rich verdure down to the water's edge. 
The river, tiiough considered high, was generally eigiit or ten feet within 
its banks ; the cuirent was gentle, about two miles per hour, excepting 
round the points of bends, where it was IVequently quite strong. We en- 
camped on the cast bank, above the moutli of Swan river; journey 56 
miles. General course a little east of north. 

July 6. — The valley of the river was narrower than yestei-day, but of 
the same character. In its turns, the river frequently washed the bases of 
the pine hills, which there rose in high sand banks. The whole country 
back was pine, j)itch and yellow pine ; but in many parts the growth had 
been killed and destroyed by fire, and scarcely any vegetation was to be 
seen. We encamped on a burnt pine ])lain, of apparently great extent, 
(on the east side,) and 100 feet above the river. Mr. S. encamped ahead. 
Journey 52 miles. 

July 7 — Started at half past 3 A. M., and passing the mouths of Trout 
and Prairie rivers, (see my map,) reached the falls of Pacagama at half 
past 12 M., where we had to make a portage of 250 yards, on the east side 
of the river. The falls of Pacagama are the most considerable of the 
Mississippi, from the falls of St. Anthony, 750 miles below. The whole 



[ Doc. No. 823. J 89 

fall is between 20 and SO feet in a distance of a hundred yards, and is no- 
where perpendicular ; but the channel is much contracted, and in one place the 
whole water runs down the surface of a smooth, plain rock for a distance 
of 40 feet, with a pitch of about 12°. The river here breaks through a low 
ridge that traverses its course, perpendicularly, in a northeast and south- 
west direction ; and the rock is granular quartz, and the first rock of any 
kind that we have seen in place on the river. About a mile above the 
falls, Pacagama river, a small stream, comes in from the west, and from 
this commence the great swamps and savannes (savannas) or wet mea- 
dows, which border the Mississippi, on one or both sides, for a great dis- 
tance above. We were winding through these until 10 o'clock at night, 
seeking vainly for a dry spot on which to encamp, when we overtook Mr. 
S. and party, who had been separated from us all this day and yesterday, 
encamped on a little dry point of oak woods, a kind of island in the vast 
marshes that he had found before dark. We were detained to-day repair- 
ing canoes, but have travelled fifty miles. 

Julij 8, {Sunday.) — We remained encamped, washing, cooking, and re- 
pairing canoes. 

July 9- — The whole party set off together as soon as it was light, and 
entered immediately a great grass savarme, of eight or ten miles breadth, 
such as I have represented on the map, through which the Mississippi 
wound, more crooked than any part we had passed. 

Pointe au Clieue, along dry point of oak land, noted by traders and In- 
dians as a place of encamj)ment, runs prominently into the vast fields of 
grass, about two miles above our encampment. One Indian family were 
located on it, and subsisted on ducks, which aie remarkably abundant 
along this part of the river. The channel of the river, tlirough the sa- 
vanne, was sometimes thi-ee hundred yards broad, and again branched 
into many smaller channels, which ran a short distance and expanded into 
little lakes, bordered only with grass growing in the water, and from 
which other little channels, through the tall grass, ran on to unite again 
with the main one. The whole country seemed covered with water, from 
one to three feet deep, but the grass rose several feet above the surface in 
the deepest parts, growing very thick ; and possessing a strength so great 
that in many places, as in short bends, the current washed against it with' 
great velocity and force, it stood as erect, as green, and as healthy, as that 
remote from the river. 

Having an Indian guide, who knew the general course of the river, we 
were enabled to cut off many of its great bends, by running directly 
through the jieninsulas of grass ; but although the water was two or three 
times more than deep enough to float our canoes, such was the nature and 
gi'owth of the grass that it required the united strength of the whole 
crew to force a canoe through it. 

The grasses observed wei-e several species of carex, or sedge, the bul- 
rush, the joint rush, and the Indian reed, [Ciuna arundinncea.) These 
occurred sometimes separately, in areas of great extent, and sometimes 
altogether. Where the Indian reed grew alone, it was so tall, and straight, 
and close, that, although in four feet water, we could not penetrate it witli 
our canoes. 

Its great deviation from straightness makes it very annoying to follow 
the course of the river through one of these savannes; for, after pulling 
near an hour against a strong current, and turning an abrupt point where 



40 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

it is stronger, the voyageur finds himself at once going directly back for 
the same length of time. After winding through the savannc in this way 
for several Imurs, we left the Mississippi on our left, to take a nearer route 
to Lake Winnipeg, known to our guide, which is laid down on the maj), and 
runs through a long and narrow, but very deep little lake, Lac La Cross, 
remarkable as affording large, fine whitefish in abundance. From this wc 
ascended a very small river thiee or four miles, to another little lake, from 
which we made a portage of 800 yards, into Little Lake Winnipeg, through 
which the Mississippi runs. By this route we cut off a great bend of the 
river, where it receives Leech Lake river, and saved thirty or forty miles 
travelling. A few miles farther brought us to Big Lake Winnipeg, and 
to the trading house, on the north side of it, wjiere we encamped at 5 P. M. j 
having come to-day fifty miles by our route, and by tlie Mississippi near 
ninety miles. 

This trading house is occupied by a trader of Mr. Aitkin, Mr. Belan- 
ger, now present, who has lived here for several years, without once going 
below. His dwelling and store were situated four or five hundred yards 
from the lake on a little rise of ground, where he had a fine large garden, 
in which were growing beautifully vines, potatoes, and other vegetables, 
and among them tobacco, which was particularly remarkable, this being 
the most northerly point of all the Mississip[)i ; the i)lant was now small, 
but looked well, and Mr. Belanger said it grew large and fine before the 
time for cutting it. He had also a stock of cows, in tiie finest order, fat- 
tened on the gi-ass which grew in luxuriant abundance all aiound him. 
The grass is of the genus alopecurns, which, the soil being very rich, grows 
tall and thick, f^ffording, for the meie labor of cutting it, a plenty of the 
best of hay. Great herds of cattle might be raised about this lake on the 
grass alone. The forest here is liglit, and jjrincipally oak. A small river 
which runs past the house and empties into the lake, has its source in a little 
lake, not a mile above, in which an excellent quality of whitefish are taken. 
Lake Winnipeg also affords this fish, and a small fish resembling it, called 
tuUihee by the French. 

This post is of some imj)ortance to the Indian trade, eight packs having 
been made here last winter, but they were mostly bear skins, and on that 
account not so valuable as packs are generally. It is but a short j)t)rtage 
from here to a river of Rainy lake, aiul this is the route of our traders to 
that place, which is distant five days' journey. We obtained fiom Mr. 
Belanger much valuable information of the country above, and of our pro- 
posed route through it. Thei-e were but few Indians here present, but 
about one bundled trade at this post. 

July 10 — Started at 4, A. M., and crossing Lake Winnipeg in the 
direction of its length, which is about fifteen miles, we again got into the 
Mississippi, from the southwest end of tiie lake. This lake is nearly round, 
is without islands, and is deep and clear, excepting near the shores, where, 
for a great part of its circumference, the grass is grown out one or two 
liundied yards into the water. Pine hills are seen all round the lake, u 
short distance back. 

From Lake Winnipeg to Cass lake, a distance of twenty miles, the 
Mississippi is \ery sensibly diminished in breadth and quantity of water, 
and runs all the way through a savanne of the same character as that de- 
scribed yesterday, but narrow, from one to three miles broad, and bounded 
on both sides by liigh pine ridges and plains, on which, in many places, 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 41 

tlie pine is large, forming thick heavy forests of yellow and pitch pine. 
At the entrance to Cass lake, by the site of an old village, we were met 
by a number of Indians, who fired their usual salute, and conducted us to 
their village, which is at present situated on the large island of the lake. 
Grand island, ten miles from the entrance. We encamped near the vil- 
lage, on a long, narrow point of the island, running out to the north, and 
elevated about 150 feet above the lake. 

Grand island occupies a large part of the southwestern half of this lake ; 
it is about eight miles in its greatest length, and has three long, attenuated 
points, at neai'ly equal distances from eacli other, which give its contour 
a singular sliape ; that on whicli we encamped is the most elevated, and 
has the richest soil, and is, hence, appropriated for the village and gardens ; 
the remainder of the island being mostly pine ridges, and poor. The top 
of this point is thiee hundred yards broad, and is slightly undulated by 
little hills and valleys, and sinkings, wherein, the soil being tlie richest, 
the gaidens are planted. The whole quantity under cultivation is about 
eight acres, producing potatoes, corn, and vines, now gi'owing beautifully ; 
and the great extent and abundance of the crops, in proportion to the 
number of Indians, conveyed an idea of providence and comfort that had 
not been excited by like evidences of industry any where else among the 
Chipj)ewas. 

Tiie prospect from this high point was beautiful. The lake is twenty 
miles in length, and nearly round ; and from our elevated situation, near 
the middle of it, we could see much the greater part of its circumference. 
The water was remarkably clear, deep, and beautiful ; the shore was sandy 
and high, and showed thick heavy forests of pine on hills and ])lains, im- 
mediately back. The immediate shores of the island were boulders of 
pi-imitive rock. Five or six miles southeast of this is a little high island 
called '* Red Cedar Island," from which the lake took its former name, 
" Red Cedar Lake." 

The Cass lake band of Indians numbers one hundred and forty-eight, 
of whom about twenty are warriors. Their country or hunting grounds 
is rich in large game, deer, and bears, which, with their garden vegeta- 
bles, and the fish of the lake, afford them a plentiful subsistence. Tlieir 
trader is one of Mr. Aitkin's clerks, who was not now present, to whom 
they give annually a good quantity of furs, beaver, marten, otter, and bears ; 
and he, in return, seems to supply ttiem well with the usual Indian goods. 
They are not much at war in the field, but from tiieir vicinity to their na- 
tural enemies, the Sioux, it can never be said of them that they are at 
peace. Some of the young men weie now absent, at Leech lake, where 
they had just returned from an excursion against the Sioux, with the Leech 
lake Indians, under the Leech lake chiefs. Two or three that went 
fi-om hci-e, had got home, bringing news of their success, and of the loss 
in battle of one of the Cass lake Indians, the only Chippewa killed in the 
excursion. They gave us also information of the whole proceeding of the 
*v'ar party, their battle, &c. The party was one hundi'ed strong, consist- 
ing almost entirely of the Leech lake band, and was led by Flat Mouth, 
their principal chief, by whom it had been raised to chastise tlie Sioux for 
numerous aggressions on this band, on their hunting gi'ounds west of 
Crow Wing river. They met a war party of the Sioux of infei-ior strength, 
on these grounds, near their western boundary, and defeated them, killing 
three, and wounding two or three more, but lost one of their own men, as 
6 



42 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

before stated. The Sioux fled, and the Chippewas returned immediately, 
but so much elated with their success, that one would have supposed, from 
their manner of relating the story, and the cliaracter of their rejoicing, 
that they had defeated the whole Si('ux tribe, and killed half of them. Tlie 
party had been got up, after the Indian manner, with so much pomp, pre- 
l)aration, and ceremony, that the whole country had been excited ; and in 
their great anxiety and solicitude for the result of the campaign, a single 
victory and paltry success, as it was all they had done, was viewed as a 
monstrous achievement. The party had returned after the first little fight 
apparently satisfied, and without stopping to inquire what more they could 
do, or how much they had gained for all their trouble. 

A ])(>rti()n of one of the Sioux scalps, now taken, had been brought to 
Cass lake, and the Indians here regaled us with a scalp dance, soon after 
our arrival. They had two other scalps, taken at formei* periods, and all 
Mere exhibited on this occasion, stretched by means of tiiongs, in the cen- 
tre of wooden hoops, afoot in diameter, profusely ornamented with feathers ; 
staves or handles, four or five feet long, were attached to the hoops, and 
in the dance each was carried above her head by an Indian woman, who 
sang and dar)ced incessantly. The other Indians around, men, women, 
and children, all engaged in the singing, and kept time on the Indian 
drum, and by beating any thing, but the dancing was done entirely by the 
women who carried the scalps. Two of them were young, but sucli was 
their excitement on this occasion, that they seemed to have forgotten the 
peculiar modesty of Indian v.omen of their age ; holding their heads erect, 
casting fierce and wild glances on all around, and showing an expression 
of countenance, at times, almost fiendish. A like enthusiasm seemed to 
animate the aged and the children ; and an observer of these cei'emonies, 
when he reflects on their freipient occurrence, will not be at a loss to ac- 
count for the irreconcilable hatred wiiich exists in the breasts of these 
Indians for their enemies. I'hey had been dancing here for many days 
previous to our arrival, and they continued now, without the least cessa- 
tion, until after twelve at night. They expect during this dance, when 
strajigers are present, to receive presents for the benefit of the widows or 
families of their warriors who may have perished in battle, and our men 
and voyageurs were liberal in the observance of this custom. 

We were busied, from our arrival till night, in making preparations to 
continue our journey to the source of the Mississippi ; and it was arranged 
to leave our large canoes and most of our men here, atid proceed in small 
canoes, borrowed from the Indians. Five of these were provided for the 
five gentlemen of our party, and the pr(»visions and necessaries for the trip, 
each to cari-y a passenger, a share of baggage, and two voyageurs; this 
being a full load for canoes of their very diminutive size. But a branch of 
the river which we were to ascend, was represented to be so very small, 
as to be only navigated with canoes of this size. Yellow Head, an intelli- 
gent Indian, who belongs to this village, and who came with us from Lake 
Superior, continues as our guide. 

July 11. — All proper arrangements for our further journey being com- 
pleted the previous evening, we made an early start. I left my men and 
baggage in charge of my corporal, and took one of Mr. Schoolcraft's voy- 
ageurs and an Indian to conduct my canoe, as I could not entrust the ma- 
nagement of so small and delicate a craft to any of my men. These very 
small canoes require a care and skill to conduct them safely, only known 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] m 

to those long accustomed to the use of them. They are used hy the Indians 
of this couriti'y, because the streams are all small ; and because, in many 
of tjjeir routes, there are numerous portages, where it is a great object to 
make the carrying as light as possible. These i-casons have determined 
us to adopt them on this occasion ; for we expect to ascend a small branch 
of the Mississippi, and to make a long portage from its head to the source 
of the larger bianch. 

We entered the Mississippi from a bay on the west side of Cass lake^ 
and passed, in a short distance, through two small lakes and a savanne, 
above all which we still found a large river forty or fifty yards broad, and 
from tv.o to six feet deep, which wound its way through a narrow valley 
of low, alluvial bottom, confined by pine hills, up toLacTravers, forty miles 
above Cass lake. In this distance there a)'e many rajjids running over 
boulders of primitive rock, but there is no fall, and no rock is seen in place. 

LacTravers may well be arranged among the sources of the Mississippi. 
It is a beautiful lake, about ten miles long from north to south, and about 
half as broad, surrounded by pine woods, which rise into high hills on the 
north and northwest, foi-ming a part of the chain dividing the waters of 
the Mississipj)i from those of Red river. Tiie western shore is much in- 
dented with bays, but the east and southeast is beautifully regular and 
plain, with a sandy bank, and beach of pure white sand. The river emp- 
ties into the south end of tiie lake, and runs out at the east side, not far 
from its entrance, leaving the great body of the lake to the north of our 
passage through it. There is a trading house on the west bank, near the 
mouth of the river, wliich is occupied, in winter, by a clerk of Mr. Aitkin* 
From Lake Travers we passed by a broad channel one hundred yards 
long, into another small lake, and, half a mile above this, came to the forks 
of tlie 1-1 ver. The blanches are of nearly the same breadth, about forty feet, 
but the stronger current of the right hand branch denoted it much the 
larger. We ascended the left or east branch, as we had intended, which 
soon narrowed to twenty feet breadth, and, in a distance of ten or twelve 
miles, brought us to Lake Rahbahkanna, or Resting lake, a pretty little 
lake, four nules in diameter, and nearly round, with a low beach of smooth 
pebbles all round it. We encamped a few miles above this lake at 7 P. M., 
having come this day, by my estimate, fifty-five miles. Our course ta 
Lac Travers was northwest ; from the latter, nearly south. 

July 1£. — This was a rainy, disagreeable day, and the moschetoes were 
numerous, hungry, and extremely annoying, but we travelled, notwith- 
standing, at our usual speedy rate. Our course has been south, and the valley 
of the river was savanne and tamrack and cedar swamp, but generally nar- 
row, about half a mile broad, with low ridges and a miserable giowth of 
pine bordering it on both sides. I'he river has become very small and some- 
what rapid • and we have encamped after making a portage of two miles 
round a chain of rapids. One of our Indians killed a deer this morning, 
and we saw many more during the day. This country is so very remote 
and dreary, that the Indians seldom visit it. and the deer are more abun- 
dant than about the river below ; ducks are also very numerous in the sa- 
vannes where there is wild rice. Joui-ney 52 miles. 

July 13. — We ascended the river in our canoes ten miles farther, 
to a little lake, (Usaw-way, or Perch lake,) about two miles long and half a 
mile broad ; the river was very narrow and crooked, through a low, nar- 
row meadow, and a little above this lake we left it; seeing that we had 



44 [ Doc. No. S'2B. J 

now traced this smaller branch of the Mississippi into the very swamps and 
meadows, from the drainage of which it takes it rise. 

From here we set off, over laml, in a southwest direction, to reach Lac 
La Biche, represented as the source of the larger branch. Ourcajioes and 
baggage being vei-y light, all was transported at one load, one man carry- 
ing the canoe, and the other the baggage of each of the party. In this way 
we made a portage of six miles in four hours, and struck the lake, the ob- 
ject of our search, near the end of its southeastern bay. The first mile of 
the portage was through a tamrack swamp, and the remainder, excepting 
a little lake of 300 yards diameter, was over pine ridges of the poorest 
character imaginable. The soil was almost pure sand, and the pine was 
stinted and mostly of the scr/tft species, (pinus banksianus,) which, hung as it 
was with lichens, and no other growth, not even a bush or shrub, mixed 
\vith it, presented a picture of landscape more dismal and gloomy than 
any other pait of this miserably poor country that we had seen. Not a 
bird or animal, scarce even a fly, was to be seen in the whole distance of 
this portage, and it would seem that no kind of animal life was adapted to 
so gloomy a region. 

From these hills, which were seldom more than two or tliree hundred 
feet high, we came suddenly down to the lake, and we embarked and passed 
nearly tlirough it to an island, near its west end, where we remained one 
or two houis. 

We were now sure that we had reached the true source o^ the great river, 
and a feeling of great satisfaction was manifested by all the party ; Mr. 
Schoolcraft hoisted a flag on a high staff", on the island, and left it flying. 

Lac La Biche is about seven miles long, and from one to three broad, but 
is of an irregular shape, conforming to the bases of pine liills, which, for 
a great part of its circumference, rise abruptly from its shore. It is deep, 
and very clear and cold, and seemed lo be well stocked with fish. Its 
shores show some boulders of primitive rock, but no rock in place, and are 
generally skirted near the water with bushes. The island, the only one 
of the lake, and which I have called Schoolcraft island, is one hundred and 
fifty yards long, fifty yards broad, and twenty or thirty feet elevated in its 
highest part; a little rocky in boulders, and grown over with pine, spruce, 
wild cherry, and elm. 

There can be no doubt but that this is the true source and fountain of the 
longest and largest branch of the Mississippi. All our information tiiat we 
had been able to collect on the way, from traders and Indians, pointed to 
it as such ; and our ])rincipal Indian guide, Yellow Head, who has proved 
to us his close intelligence of the countr-y, represents the same. He has 
formerly hunted all around it, and says there is a little creek, too small for 
even our little canoes to ascend, emptying into the south bay of tiie lake, 
and having its source at the base of a chain of higli hills, which we could 
see, not two miles off", and that this is the only stream of any description 
running into it. In fact, the whole country showed that there was no stream 
beyond, for the lake was shut in on all sides by pine hills, and the only 
opening through them was that by which it discharged itself. To the 
west we could see distinctly a range of almost mountains, covered with 
pine, which was undoubtedly the chain dividing us from the waters of Red 
river. 

It will be seen, from my map, that Lac La Biche is but little west of 
south from Cass lake, and almost due south from Lac Travers, which is a 



[ Doc. No. 823. ] 45 

different position from that assigned to it on published maps, where it is inva- 
riably represented north of Cass lake. There is, however, a little stream, 
Turtle river, entering Cass lake from the north, in the route of traders to 
Turtle lake and Red lake, but it is a very small and insignificant stream, 
and is only forty-five miles in length. 

We left Lac La Biche, from its northern bay, having coasted nearly its 
Avhcde circumference, and found the Mississippi, at its very egress from 
the lake, a respectable stream ; its channel being twenty feet broad ajid 
two feet deep, and current two miles per hour. Its course was nortiiwest 
and soon ran through a chain of Ingh pine hills, where the channel contracted 
very mucli, and numerous rapids occurred of very great fall over boulders 
of primitive rock ; tiie river running, for the distance, in a deep ravine. 
We descended twenty-five miles, and encamped. 

July 14. — The course of the river was nearly north all day, passing 
several miles of rapids in the morning, in one of which my canoe was upset, 
and 1 lost my compass, and, with every thing else, my notes were wet and 
much injured. Mr. Schoolcraft, howevei-, furnished me with another 
compass, and I proceeded, securing my notes as well as I could until night,, 
when I would have an opportunity to dry them. After the rapids, the river 
was of gentle current, and ran mostly through savannes of wild rice, and 
tamrack and cedar swamps, but the valley of the swamps and savannes 
was generally narrow and bounded by hills of inferior pine, and some- 
times a small thick growth of aspen poplar, where the pine had been de- 
stroyed by fire. 

We travelled very rapidly all day, and, when we stopped at night, had 
made seventy-five miles. After supper, Mr. Schoolcraft and the other 
gentlemen continued on, being anxious to reach Cass lake ; but I remained 
encamped till morning, that I might, in daylight, continue the tracing of 
the river, and my observations of the country. 

The moschetoes were thick and very troublesome all day, as has inva- 
riably been the case in our route through swamps and savatmes. 

Jnlij 15, (Sunday.) — Left my lonely encampment as soon as I could see 
to trace the river, and ran down with a gentle current, most of the way 
through savannes and rice meadows, to Lac Travers, a distance of twenty 
miles. Tiie junction with the branch we ascended is just above this lake^ 
and the lake and river below are described in our route ascending, (July 
11.) I travelled very rapidly in consequence of the numerous rapids be- 
low Lac Travers, and reached Cass lake and the encampment at 6 P. M., 
having travelled this day a distance of sixty-five miles. Mr. Schoolcraft 
and party had gone all night, and arrived at 9 A. M. 

Thus the journey to the source of the Mississippi and back has been ac- 
complished in five days, a distance of 290 miles, it being 125 miles to Lac 
La Biche, by the route ascended, and 165 by that descended, or by the 
longer and larger branch, which runs from Lac La Biche ; this latter be- 
ing the true length of the river above Cass lake. This makes the length 
of the Mississippi, above the falls of St. Anthony, 1,029 miles, or 1,038 
miles above the St. Peter's river and Fort Snelling. The true character of 
the river above Sandy lake is represented on my map, which is also, 
in a measure, descriptive of this part of the country. 

My men, being left here during this trip, have had a very useful and 
necessary rest from the excessive fatigues of the former part of the jour- 
ney, and, excepting the man who was hurt on the portage of Fond du Lac 



46 [ Doc. No. 823. ] 

river, are well recovered. The Indians are represented to have danced 
the scalp dance every night of our absence, and they are still dancing. 

July 16. — Mr. Schoolcraft held a council with the Indians of this band, 
and constituted the Indian, Yellow Head, a chief, by presenting him with 
a large medal, the emblem of his authority. Yellow Head, vviio had tra- 
velled with us, and been our princijjal guide from Fond du Lac, had pi'oved 
himself, in the course of our journey, to be industrious and intelligent : he 
had also character and influence with his band, and it is probable he will 
make a good chief. He seemed fully aware of tiie responsibility of the 
new relation in which this placed him to his band ; and when he received 
the medal, and during the speech and advice of Mr. Schoolcraft to him, he 
manifested, by his manner and countenance, the strongest interest and 
concern. 

The council, and the distribution of the few presents Mr. Schoolcraft had 
to give, and the vaccination, kept us till 10 o'clock A. M., when we started 
for Leech lake, parting here with Mr. Dufour, the trader who had accom- 
panied us from Fond du Lac, and who was going from here to Red lake, 
his post. Our direction to Leech lake was south, the route leading from a 
deep bay of the south of Cass lake over a short portage to a little lake, and 
thence over another portage of two miles on a pine plain to another little 
lake, from which, by a very small jiver, we entered a western bay of Leech 
lake, and got to the chief's village at 10 o'clock at niglit, having, not- 
withstanding the portages, travelled this day a distance of near forty miles. 

July 17. — The village of our encampment was Flat Mouth's, (Aish-ka- 
bug-a-kosh,) who is the principal chief of his band, and perhaps one of the 
most poweri'ul and influential men of his whole nation. He is also their 
jirincipal orator, and on all occasions like the present, when councils are 
iield on their general interests, he is looked up to with great confidence and 
respect, and depended upon to say and do whatever is necessary for the 
benefit of the whole. He had heard of our coming by a message sent from 
Lake Winnipeg, on our way up, and seemed to have prepared himself for 
the occasion. I visited his house, which is built of squared timber, and 
like the trader's house, early in the morning, and found it in a neat condi- 
tion, and the walls hung round with his flags, war clubs, spears, pipes, 
medals, and wampum ; all arianged with a peculiar taste. His medals, 
%vampum, and Hags were spotted with rech paint, a circumstance which he 
afterwards exj)lained in his speech in council. He invited Mr. Schoolcraft 
and the interpreter to breakfast with him, his assumed dignity on this oc- 
casion, as we understood it, not allowing him to invite any but the princi- 
pal of the party. 

The Indians of this band, who were living at different parts of thelake, 
in several villages, began to assemble at the chief's village as soon as 
they heard of our arrival, and Doctor Houghton commenced vaccinating 
immediately. Flat Mouth dined with Mr. Schoolcraft by invitation, and 
in the afternoon the council was held, at which most of the band were pre- 
sent. The few presents which Mr. S. hi»d to give them were soon distri- 
buted by two or thiee of the subordinate chiefs ; after which Mr. S. held 
a " talk," wherein he advised the chiefs and warriors to endeavor to put a 
stop to their feuds with the Sioux ; to cultivate peace, and to take care of 
their women and children ; to hunt their rich forests for game, cultivate 
the soil, raise corn, and endeavor to j)rocure and enjoy some of the com- 
forts of the whites, and to learn to live like them. He told them they 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 47 

ought not to make war with their neighbors, but it was not expected of 
them to sit still and be " struck ;" tliat tliey might properly carry on a 
defensive war, but that they should not go to war without cause ; that 
their great lather, the President, loved them, and was ever watchful of 
all their actions, and it was his wish that the Sioux and Chippewas 
should live happily, and at peace with each other. 

Flat Mouth spoke in reply. That he considered Mr. Schoolcraft as 
appointed and sent to listen to the Indians, and he wished him to listen 
attentively to what he had to say. He intended to speak fearlessly; his 
young men and warriors expected him to do so, and would think lightly 
of him if he did not. He had long listened to the admonitions of his 
great father to maintain jjcace with the Sioux ; but his great father had 
not fulfilled the promises of protection made to the Chippewas at the trea- 
ties of Prairie du Ciuen and Fond du Lac; and tlie unchecked aggres- 
sions of the Sioux had now become so intolerable that it was necessary for 
the Chippewas to punish the Sioux themselves, and it was their fixed deter- 
mination to do so. That it had been promised them, at these treaties, 
that the <' long arm'* of the President should be constantly extended over 
them to protect them; and if the Sioux made further aggressions upon 
their territory, the arm of the President would reach them, and draw 
tiiem back and chastise them. This had not been done. The Sioux had, 
since that time, made fiequent inroads, and had killed great numbers of their 
young men, and, among them, his own son ; but the long arm of the Pre- 
sident had not yet reaclied the aggressors, to inflict the promised punish- 
ment. He had, therefore, resolved to listen no longer to advice to keep 
peace, but to revenge his numerous injuries by fighting and killing his 
enemies ; too many of their warriors and relatives had been murdered, for 
his people to think of any other course. [Here he gave a bunch of short 
reeds, about 50, to represent tlie number of his young men killed by the 
Sioux, since the treaty of Prairie du Chien.] The blood of so njany had 
stained every thing around him, and must, in some way, be washed away; 
it covered every thing he had received from t!«e Government, his medals, 
his flags, the letteis of advice ^\hich had been sent to him from the agent, 
through the traders ; the wampum sent him by the President, and the 
very ribbons that now suspended the medals and wampum from his hand ; 
all were dyed deep with the blood of his murdered young men. He 
wished the Government of the United States to wash it off, and make his 
medals as bright as when he received them ; and until this would be done, he 
could not consent to remain at peace. If Mr. S. could do this, he wished him 
to do it now, and at once, for he regarded it as a stain upon the Govern- 
ment, and his tribe ; and he now threw down his medals before Mr. S. 
that he might make them again bright, [throwing them down at Mr. 
Schoolcraft's feet.] His warriors had but now returned from an excur- 
sion against the Sioux, in which they had killed three of their enemies, 
but they were by no means satisfied ; and he had sent messages to differ- 
ent bands, inviting to another campaign, and expected before the snow 
fell to be again in the field. He deplored the poverty and weakness of his 
tribe ; the very trees of the forest were dropping tears of pity over them, 
and he thought it a duty of the Government of the United States now to 
give them assistance to chastise their enemies, as had been promised them. 
If it did not, he would go beyond the Americans, to men wearing hats, 
(meaning British,) to seek help. He wished to say a great deal to Mr. 



48 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

Schoolcraft, and if he would wait till the next day, he would be prepared 
to make a better speech, and to say many things more. 

During this speech he was surrounded by most of the warriors of his 
band, who, by their ready and general response, seemed to be well pleased 
with it. His manner was bold and vehement, particularly when he spoke 
of the Sioux ; and, from the glow of excitement in the eyes and counte- 
nances of his warriors, I could see that they fully entered into his feelings. 

Mr. Schoolcraft said a few words in reply to parts of the speech, and the 
council broke up a little before sunset, when we injmediately embarked, and 
went about three miles down one of the bays of the lake to encamp. 

Tliis was altogether the most interesting band that we had met with 
among all the Chippewas whom we had visited. Their lake is the largest 
of all the lakes which contribute to the waters of the Mississippi, being 
more than one hundred miles in circumference, and most curiously formed 
of deep and narrow bays, which afford abundance of wild rice, while their 
immediate shores are of a character of soil, very ricli, and suitable for 
their gardens. Tiie Leech lake band is too large to live comfortably iu 
one or two villages, and is therefore dispersed in little villages all around 
the lake, and on two of its islands. The number of the band is put down, 
from the most accurate information we could obtain, at 836, 806 of whom 
live about Leech lake, and 30 on Peckagama river. 

Their country abounds in furred animals and game, and the lake affords 
abundance of fish ; whitefish, herring, and tullibee, which they take in gill 
nets at all seasons. Deer and bears are the principal animals of the 
forest which are hunted for their meat ; and beavers, otters, martens, and 
muskrats are the chief furred animals, which are taken in such great num- 
bers as to make this one of the most valuable posts of the north for the 
American trade. About seven thousand dollars worth of furs are annually 
sold to American traders, and great quantities are taken from here across 
the lines to the British trader at Rainy lake, and sold there for whiskey 
and some British goods. These Indians have a partiality for the British, 
which they take no pains to conceal, and, as far as is in their power, they 
obtain their supplies from the Britisii traders. Mr. Aitkin is of opinion 
that four or five thousand dollars woith of furs are annually traded by this 
band across the lines to the Hudson Bay Company. From their remoteness 
from white settlements, they still retain much of their native character. 
They have not been debased or enfeebled with whiskey, from the difficulty 
of obtaining it in great quantities ; and, unlike most of their tribe, they 
are strong, athletic, muscular men, of large stature, and fine appearance, 
looking proud, haughty, and unsubdued ; and carrying an independence 
and fearlessness with their manner, that indicates a full estimate of their 
own strength. They have sometimes robbed tiieir traders of a part of 
their goods, and have hence acquired the name of «The Pillagers," or 
<' The Robbers :" but, of late years, they have been less troublesome to 
their traders, and are not much complained of except for their impudence, 
and a total disregard of, and disrespect for the power and Government 
of the United States. They are undoubtedly inimical to our Government, 
and friendly to the Britisii ; and such is their ignorance and arrogance, that 
they have threatened to drive away the American trader, and bring a 
British one, whom they would maintain and protect among them. 

The strength of the band in warriois may be estimated at about two 
hundred, which is much greater than that of any other single band of the 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 49 

nation ; the Chippewas being, in consequence of the great poverty of their 
country, divided into numerous bands and villages, and scattered over 
their vast territory. 

The Leech lake band, being wearest to the Sioux, are in a state of con- 
tinual war with them ; and tlieir hatred for this enemy of their tribe is 
perhaps the strongest feeling of their nature, which lias grown and 
strengthened with them from their very infancy. As Flat Mouth remarked 
to us, " it was decreed by the Great Spirit that hatred and war should 
ever exist between the Sioux and themselves ; that this decree could never 
be changed ; and the Chippewas must ever act accordingly." In the wars 
of this band with the Sioux, howevei', they associate witli other bands, as 
those of Lake Winnipeg, Cass lake, and Red lake, as they had done on their 
recent excursion, when they had sent out a hundred warriors. 

The nature of their country protects them from inroads of their enemies 
to their villages ; and they feel inaccessible and secure from any power 
whatever, even that of the United States. The traders have, in vain, to 
tlu-eaten with the power of the Government to check their excesses; their 
reply is, that they have not yet seen that power, and that it cannot reach 
them. 

It is probable, however, that our visiting them with such apparent ease, 
may have the effect of lower ing their ideas of their inaccessible position. 

They have several war chiefs who are much superior, in appearance, to 
Flat Mouth, and who have a much better character for warlike qualities. 
But the latter is the great chief in council, where his oratory sustains his 
authority ; and he is acknowledged, by all, their principal cliief. 

The excitement of their recent success against their enemies was still 
prevailing to a great extent, and it was one object of our leaving their 
village, to escape from the noise of their dancing. 

Mr. S. had engaged, for me, two guides and steersmen, in place of the 
two from Sandy lake, who now left me to return home ; but we started so 
soon after the council, that they were displeased, and did not join us, at 
night, at our encampment, as tliey were requested. 

July 18 — We waited for our guides to join us until six in the morn- 
ing, but they did njt come, and we embarked without them. Our route 
Avas, now, to tlie head of Crow Wing river, which we were to descend 
to the Mississippi, and our only guide was a map or sketch of it, drawn 
by a Leech lake Indian. We ran several miles down a deep bay, to 
the south of the lake, and, after much coasting and searching, found the 
portage leading from it, which we crossed in a direction a little west of 
south, over a pine ridge, to a small lake ; and passing through this and 
four other small lakes, with sandy shores, and clear, beautiful water, filled 
with fish, and connected together by very short and narrow channels, as 
described on the map, we came to another portage of 700 yards, to another 
lake, which, with tliree more little lakes, and as many more portages, 
brought us to Long lake, the source of Crow Wing river. These portages 
were all siiort and over pine ridges, with pine forests of yellow and pitch 
pine ; and the lakes were deep, clear, and beautiful, with the pine hills 
coming down to the watei'. This whole country is pine, and is filled 
with hundreds of these little lakes ; all of the same character, and without 
outlet or inljt : three or four may be seen from a single point, on an ele- 
vated hill. It was night when we got througli the last portage, and we 
encamped at the end of it on the shores of Long lake, w hich, though also 



50 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

small, has an outlet, wliich is Crow Wing river, or the great western' 
branch ot'the Upper Mississippi. 

Flat Moutli and another chief had overtakcH us, but no guides had yet 
come, and I felt apprehensive of danger, in descending the river, without 
other steersmen than tlie soldiers, with whom 1 had not yet dared to trust 
the management of my canoes in rapids ; and who in fact were unprac- 
tised and unskilled as steersmen, my having had Indians in that capacity 
all the way till now. In consequence of the portages, we made but thirty 
miles to-day. 

July 19. — We took leave of the old chief, Flatmouth, and his companion. 
Major Gaw-bo-way, and, starting early, passed tlirough Long Lake in its 
lengtli, which was about four miles. This is the first of a singular chain 
of eleven pretty little lakes, from two to fi\e miles in lengtli, and near to- 
gether, from which Ciow Wing river takes its rise. The channel, or river 
connecting them, is at first very narrow, shallow, and crooked, but in- 
creases a little in size in passing through each, until, where it leaves the 
last of the scries, it is thirty yai'ds broad, from two to five feet deep, and 
running three miles per hour. We had no other guide tlirougli these lakes 
than our rude Indian map, and in one of the last of the chain, being then 
three or four miles ahead of the other canoes, I was niislcd in my search 
for the outlet, and ran several miles in a wrong diiection, into a bay of the 
lake, where 1 found a small river coming into it, and in the mean time Mr. 
Schoolcraft's canoes passed me, unobseived. When I had found the right 
■way, I did not know if Mr. Schoolcralt were in front or rear, and waited 
some time for him to come up, and then proceeded, still ignorant of his 
situation, until late in the afternoon, when a tremendous storm and rain 
drove me to encamp, at half past four o'clock, on a pine plain. 

The country passed to-day has no other novelty than that of its total 
destitution of Indian habitations ; being too near the borders of tlieir re- 
spective territories, to be used by cither the Sioux or Chippewas, except- 
ing as a route for tlieir war parties, and as an occasional hunting ground 
for some of the daring young men of the Leech lake band, who are some- 
times led hither to hunt, by a scarcity in their immediate grounds, and by 
the abundance of this, the game here being abundant, from its not being 
much hunted. 

It is here that the Chippewas, and particularly the band at Leech lake, 
have lost so many of their braves, who, in these dai-ing hunts, have been 
cut off by lurking Sioux. Hence the bitter complaints of the Chippewas 
against the Sioux, this land being properly a part of the territory of the 
former, and valuable for game and furs. Journey to-day fifty miles. 

July 20. — Started from my encampment as soon as I could see, and in a 
short time passed the last lake of the eleven sources of the river, and to 
which the river is merely tangent, running only one or two hundred yards 
through the wild rice and grass of one end of it. 

Ten miles below this lake, I passed the mouth of Leaf river, which 
comes in from the N. W., and is almost as large at its moutli as Crow 
Wing river, and is navigable for canoes fifty miles, to its source in Leaf 
lake. Ten miles below this river, I passed Mr. Schoolcraft's encampment 
of the previous night, thirty miles from mine. Supposing me to be ahead 
of him, he had gone on till late at night, to overtake me, and had conse- 
quently got this distance ahead of me. As we were in the houily expecta- 
tion of meeting on this river a war party of Sioux, coming out against the 



f Doc. No. 323. ] 51 

Chippewas, I felt anxious to be up with Mr. Schoolcraft, and continued 
with all possible speed, which was now near ten miles per hour, assisted as 
■we were by a strong current. Passing a willow swamp, through which 
the river ran, for a distance of twelve or fourteen miles, we came suddenly 
to a most interminable chain of strong rapids, twenty-four of whicli Oc- 
curred in a distance of thirty miles, and some of them a mile or more in 
length. From the ignorance of my men in steering canoes, tlie passage 
of these rapids was dangerous, but, by directing the first canoe myself, and 
requiring the other to follow her closely, and in the same track, we got 
down the whole with but slight injury. It is the method of Canadians and 
Indians, in descending rapids in canoes, to allow them to float, and to 
check them continually, by |)oles, at the bow and stern, to avoid tlie rocks ; 
but as my men had not tlie skill for this, I caused tliem to row with all 
their might, and steered the canoes with paddles, by means of their head- 
way over the current. By this means, my speed was so much increased, 
over that of Mr. Schoolcraft, that I overtook him in the afternoon, about 
2 o'clock. Below the rapids, the river attained a breadth of more than 
one hundred yards, and twenty miles below, Shell river comes in from the 
west, through an immense willow marsh, and discharges itself in a mouth 
forty yards broad. This is called a large river by the traders, and is 
navigable for large canoes sixty miles, to its source in Shell lake. 

Below this river, the Crow Wing has much of the character of the Up- 
per Mississippi — broad, shallow, muddy, and sandy bottom, with long 
sand bars running out from the points ; it runs through several willow 
swamps, but is generally confined by high banks, falling from pine hills- 
and plains. We encamped on an elevated pine plain, after sunset, my dis- 
tance, travelled to-day, being 120 miles, and Mr Schoolcraft's 90 — both 
greater than usual, in conse(iuence of the rapidity of the general current, 
and my increased exertion, in the forepart of the day, to overtake Mr. 
Schoolcraft. 

July 2.1. — The river continued to increase in breadth to its mouth, where it 
divides into two channels ; but just above which it is between two and three 
hundred yards broad, but shallow, not more tlian five or six feet deep. 
About twenty miles from the mouth, it receives Long Prairie river, from 
the west, navigable for canoes thirty miles, to a lake which is its source. 
We reached the Mississippi, 40 miles from our encampment, at 12 o'clock. 

The Crow Wing river is discharged by two mouths nearly equal, and 
near a mile apart, separated by Crow island, in one side of which the Mis- 
sissippi makes its curve. The island is about three miles in circumfe- 
rence, of rich, alluvial, vegetable soil, supporting a rich heavy forest of 
elm, ash, linn, walnut, soft maple, &c., but like all the little alluvial bottoms 
of the Crow Wing and Upper Mississippi rivers, it is inundated every 
spring. The river has its mouth three hundred miles above the falls of St. 
Anthony, and three hundred below Sandy lake,* and is the largest river 
that empties into the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony. It is two 
hundred and ten miles in length to its source in Long lake, from which its 
general course is nearly south to the Mississippi. It is navigable for ca- 
noes all the way, and for boats, in low stages of water, to the rapids, 
about 80 miles. In very high stages, the rapids may be passed by Mack- 
inac boats, which might then ascend nearly to its source. It is by far 
the nearest route by water, from Fort Snelling to Leech lake, and presents 
♦ According to the estimate of the traders, which is probably too great. 



52 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

110 greater difficulties to navigation than the Mississippi does above the 
falls of St. Anthony. It runs, all its length, through a country of pine 
plains and gentle hills, so regular, smooth and free from undergrowth, 
that, as I was informed, a cart might he driven, near its banks, almost to 
Leech lake. If troops were to be sent against the upper bands of Chip- 
pewa Indians at any future time, this would be a proper route for them to 
take, whether in boats or marching : and fiom the tone and manner of the 
Leech lake Indians, observed during our visits, and the unfriendly cha- 
racter given of them by their traders, it is probable that such a measure 
may become necessary^ 

The Crow Wing river country, and that of all its tributaries, Prairie, 
Shell, and Leaf rivers, and two or three little streams coming in from 
the east, is rich in furs and game, such as beaver, marten, rats, bears, &c., 
and deer ; but much of it is not hunted, because of its border character to 
the Sioux territory. 

The east bank of the Mississippi, opposite Crow island, is near one 
hundred feet high, and tlie country back is an immense rolling prairie, 
which is here poor, the soil being dry and sandy. Here we found the 
whole of the Sandy lake band of Indians encamped, awaiting our arrival ; 
Mr. Schoolcraft having given notice, as we passed Sandy lake on our 
way up, that we would meet them here on our return. This band con- 
sists of about 280 souls, of whom 60 are warriors. Their principal chief 
is Gros Gueule, or Big Mouth, who in his youth was a man of energy 
and influence ; but he is now old and imbecile, and his autlioiity has de- 
clined with his vigor, until his band are not much prone to take his ad- 
vice. His policy has been peace ; and it is many years since his band 
liave fought the Sioux. But he remaiked to Mr. S. that he was fearful this 
state of things would not continue, as the excitement of the recent success- 
ful war excursion of tlieir brethren, the Leech lake Indians, had spread 
to his band, and he might not be able to restrain his young men from tak- 
ing part in any other expedition against the Sioux that might be got up. 
This band, however, is poor, and their country exhausted ; and these cir- 
cumstances will, undoubtedly, restrain them more than the influence and 
advice of their declining chief. 

Their hunting grounds are about Sandy lake, and along both banks of 
this Mississippi as far as this place ; but the game of the country, deer 
and bears, is scarce, and does not, with the fish they get from Sandy lake, 
and some other small lakes, afford them a sufficient subsistence ; and much 
of their food, in winter, is supplied by Mr. Aitkin, their trader at Sandy 
lake. Since the prohibition of whiskey in the Indian trade, these Indians, 
like those of Fond du Lac, have increased moie rapidly than the poor 
state of the country will admit of; and it is now only their trade in furs 
that saves many of them from starvation. They were, however, pretty 
well clothed, and looked healthy and comfortable. 

Mr. Schoolcraft held a council with them, in which Gros Gueule com- 
plained much of the treachery of the Sioux, who, he said, had often, under 
the appearance and assurance of friendship, invited some of the Chippewas 
to their lands and villages, to share the abundance of their forests, and 
when the latter had gone with this prospect, and to escape the poverty of 
their own hunting grounds, their entertainers had suddenly risen upon 
them and murdered them all. He hoped the Government would interpose 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 53 

to check the Sioux, and protect the Chippewas from their aggressions, as 
was promised at the treaties of Prairie du Chien and Fond du Lac. 

After vaccinating them, and giving them some presents and advice, 
we embarked, and proceeded ten miles below to Mr. Baker's trading 
house, where we encamped. 

Juhj 22, {Sunday.) — We remained at the house of Mr. Baker, who po- 
litely gave us much valuable information respecting the country, above 
and below. I am indebted to him for the topography of the country east 
and west of the Mississippi, from Sandy lake to St. Peter's ; which I have 
given on my map, in the character, course, and length of the streams 
which enter the Crow Wing and Mississippi rivers. Tlie following is 
also derived from him : Tlie prairie, where he lives, east of the Missis- 
sippi, extends from about one hundred miles below Sandy lake down below 
Piairie du Chien, and back from the river to the pine country intervening 
the waters of the Mississippi and Lake Superior. Its soil is generally 
poor, but affords abundance of grass ; and, in some places, where the 
prairie is low and level, as near rivers, it is rich. Timber occurs over 
it in numerous little groves and clusters and isolated trees, but it is, gene- 
rally, an iiifei-ior species of the oak. Pine grows on some of the highest 
])arts, and near some of the rivers — mostly white pine, (pinus strobus.) 
Mr. Baker has driven a cart from Fort Snelling to his house, in summer; 
and he says the prairie is practicable for carts as far as Sandy lake, ex- 
cepting a few obstructions of narrow rivers. Beaver, otter, and rats, are 
taken about the rivers ; and deer and bears are tolerably abundant about 
Mr. Baker's and below, but above, and more remote from the Sioux and 
Chippewa boundary line, tliey have been so much hunted by the Sandy 
lake Indians that they are now scarce. 

On the west side, opposite Mr. Baker's, is a thick green forest of oak, 
poplar, sugar-maple, and pine, which extends up to the pine plains about 
Crow Wing river; down, about a hundred and fifty miles, to where it ter- 
minates in prairie; and back from the river to what is called *'The 
Plains," a part of the great prairie of the Sioux, where they hunt the 
buffalo. 

The buffalo are frequently driven by severe winters to take refuge in 
this forest ; and they sometimes penetrate it to the Mississippi in search of 
w^ater, in winter; but, in summer, they roam continually over their bound- 
less praii'ies, and are nowhere seen near the Mississippi, and east of it 
they are not now to be found, any where, at any season of the year. The 
western side of tlie river abounds in deer, elk, and bears, much more at 
this place than the eastern. 

Mr. Baker's house is prettily situated on a point in a bend of the river, 
at the loot of a moderate rapid, just above which the river expands, and 
thiee small islands, heavily wooded, of about equal size, lie parallel to 
each other in its breadth, separated from themselves and the main land by 
four equal and parallel cliannels, and presenting from the house a very 
pretty view. This is the commencement of the thousands of islands of 
the Mississippi, which occur from here to its mouth. Mr. Baker is a 
trader of Mr. Aitkin — he has been here only one year, and has made but 
little improvement ; but, the land about him being rich, it his intention to 
raise cattle and hogs, and to make this a permanent trading post. Being 
near their lines, he will trade with both Sioux and Chippewas, though 
there is no village of either near him at present. 



54 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

July 23. — I abandoned one of my canoes, which was worn out, and bor- 
rowed one of Mr. Baker, to take me to Fort Snelling. He also gave ine 
two of his Canadians, whom he was sending to the fort for supplies, to act 
as steersmen and pilots over the numerous rapids below. I had now four 
oars and two paddles in each of my canoes ; which being also light of 
baggage, and my men fresh after the rest of yesterday, we were enabled 
to course the rapid current with incredible speed. At a distance of ten 
miles we passed the *• Little Falls" — a chute, wheie the river is contract- 
ed from three hundred yards to fifty yards, and falls about ten feet iti 
sixty, through a formation of talcous slate rock ; tlie first rock we had 
seen iu place, since leaving the falls of Pacagama. A little further 
down we passed Pike's rapids, and the site of Pike's blockhouse, where 
Lieut. Pike wintered his command in 1805-'6 ; and, a little farther, a 
chain of rapids called the "Grand Rapids," where the river runs over 
an extensive lock foimation of graimlar (juartz. 

We also passed, during the day, another rapid at the mouth of Elk 
river, and the *'Big Falls," at the mouth of Sac river ; and, a short dis- 
tance above the latter, the mouth of Little Sac or Wattah river, where the 
boundary line of the Sioux and Chippewas, established by the treaty of 
1825, crosses the Mississippi ; Wattali rivtr making, in its whole length, 
a part of the line, and entering tlie Mississippi about one hundred and 
twenty miles above the falls of St. Anthony. We encamjied at night 
near tlie last of six other rapids, called the '* Six Prairie Rapids," which 
occur at nearly equal distances apart, in a distance of fifteen miles, 
having travelled, during fourteen hours, a distance of 160 miles. 

The river was broa*!, (three or four bundled yards.) excepting at the 
rapids ; and islands occurred at the point of every bend. The fall in the 
rapids was nowhere so great as in the chute passed in the morning. The 
banks were high ; sometimes coming down in a gentle slope, which was 
covered with luxuriant grass (poa compressa) to the edge of the water; 
and sometimes abrupt sand to a height of one hundred feet. Before night 
the forest had disappeared on our right, and beautiful green prairies were 
seen on both sides. 

July 24 A sl.iort distance below our encampent, we passed the mouth 

of St. Francis, or Parallel river, a considerable stream, running jiaral- 
lel to the Mississippi, and navigable for canoes one hundred miles. 
And larther down, on the same side, the mouth of Rum river, which is 
sixty yards broad at its mouth, and is navigable for canoes one hundred 
and fifty miles, to Mil lac, a lake almost as large as Cass lake, where 
the American Fur Company have a trading house, and where there is a 
village of one hundred and twenty Indians. Another branch of Rum 
river, called Kettle river, has its source near Fond du Lac river, one hun- 
dred miles north of Mil lac. 

Several smaller tributaries of the Mississippi are delineated, in their 
appropriate place, on the map of this day's Journey. 

We arrived at the falls of St. Anthony at I P. M., and at Fort Snel- 
ling at 3 P. M., a distance of ninety miles* from our encampment. 
The river and countiy passed to-day have the san»e character as yester- 
day, the country being uneven prairie on both sides, and the river filled 
with islands, but becoming wider continually, from its numerous tributa- 

*This diminishes the distance from Crow Wing river to the falls fifty miles beneath.tbe 
estimate of the traders, who make it 300 miles. My estimate is 250. 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 55 

ries, until it lias a breadth of four hundred yards. The falls have been de- 
scribed by Mr. Schoolcraft, and other former travellers, who had more time 
to observe them than was allotted to me. I have only to correct an error in 
the height of the perpendicular fall. It was estimated by Lieut. Pike 
sixteen feet, and by Mr. Schoolcraft forty feet. I was told by an officer 
at Fort Snelling, that, by actual measurement, it was eighteen feet pre- 
cisely. Below the falls there is a considerable rapid, and the whole de- 
scent at this place, including also the rapid above, may be estimated at 
eighty feet. IJetwecn the falls and Fort Snelling, a distance of nine miles, 
the channel is contracted, in a <Ieep ravine, between blulT rocky banks of 
great height, and the river runs in a torrent all the way. The house and 
mill belonging to tiie United States at the falls seemed to be in a good 
state of preservation, though not used. 

On my arrival at Fort Snelling, I reported to the commanding officer, 
Capt. Jouett, and made i-equisition for provisions to take my detachment 
home ; the provisions I had started with, from Fort Brady, being now 
nearly exhausted. We expected to hear, at the fort, something definitely 
of the Sac war, but did not, no news having come from it of any 
consequence. 

July 25 — Was occupied at Fort Snelling in preparing the provisions 
for transportation, in canoes, and over portages ; and in making necessary 
repairs to my tents, canoes, &c., for the remainder of the journey. Capt. 
Jouett gave me evei-y assistance in his power, but the kegs for my pork 
could not be completed this day ; and although Mr. Sciioolcraft had com- 
])leted his business with the Indians here in the afternoon, we were obliged 
to remain over night. I purchased a canoe, to replace the one abandoned 
at Mr. Baker's, the best I could get, but it was a very bad one. I got 
another man here also, one who had deseKed IVom Lieut. Clary tlie 
preceding summer, at La Pointe, and was taken by Mr. Warren, the tra- 
der at La Pointe, to Fort Snelling, and delivered to the commanding offi- 
cer. I'his increased my party to eleven men. 

Jiily 26. — I comjdeted the packing of my provisions this morning ; the 
pork in kegs, and the flour in bags, and embarked from Fort Snelling at 
half past 8 A. M. Mr. Schoolcraft started earlier, but was detained at 
a Sioux village, Little Crow's, below, and I overtook liim at breakfast ; 
after which we all proceeded together until one of my canoes was broken 
on a snag, atid I had to put ashore at a Sioux village, to repair, which de- 
tained me half an hour, and, in the mean time, Mr. Schoolcraft's canoes 
got so far ahead that I could not overtake them. This occasioned me some 
trouble ajid p^irplexity ; for our route was to leave the Mississippi, at the 
St. Croix river, forty or fifty miles below Fort Snelling, and I had neither 
guide, n»ap, nor directions, to enable me to distinguish the moutii of the St. 
Croix from the hundreds of channels into which the Mississippi is divided 
by its numerous islands. I was misled by two or three of these channels 
which came in with every appearance of separate rivers, and was, conse- 
quently, detained ; but at 5 o'clock I got really into the St. Croix, whicli 
I soon recognised alter I had entered it, by the long lake near its mouth. 
I proceeded up this lake fifteen miles, and encamped alone, Mr. School- 
craft and party being somewhere ahead. 

The country about the Mississippi, below the falls, is the same as that 
above, but the river itself is broader, and its banks are higher, the coun- 
try having preserved its general level, whilst the river has dropped eighty 



56 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

feet at the falls. The valley is from a half to two miles broad, of a low 
bottom land, or vegetable deposite, and is cut up by channels into numerous 
little islands, covered with fine rich land-timber, but all subject to inun- 
dation. 

The St. Croix enters the Mississippi by a mouth seventy-five yard* 
broad, opposite an island of the latter, and fifty miles below Fort Snelling. 
Its right bank, at the mouth, is a perpendicular rock, eight or ten feet high, 
(calcareous sand rock,) and the left is a low, acute point. A few hundred yards 
from the mouth, it opens into a long, narrow lake, Lake St. Croix, which 
seems to fill or lie in a valley, the hills rising to form its banks, on each 
side, in green gentle slopes. Journey to day 65 miles. 

July 27. — The Lake St. Croix continued twenty-one miles beyond our 
encanjpment, making its whole length thirty-six miles, in a north and 
south direction. It isclear and deep, and seldom more than tliree or four 
miles in breadth. The country on each side is tlie same prairie that bor- 
ders the Mississippi. The lake gradually contracts at its upper end, to 
the breadth of the river, and is filled, at tiiis pai't, ^vith low, little, willow 
islands, above which the river has a unifoi-m breadth of about seventy 
yards, and current of two miles per hour. The immediate shores of the 
river are skirted Nvith a low, narrow, rich bottom, like the Mississippi, but 
the land about it is higher, poorer, and more hilly, as we ascend. The 
canoe I got at Fort Snelling proved to be bad and troublesome, and has 
detained me much in repairing it; in consequence, I have made but forty 
miles. I have seen nothing of Mr. Schoolcraft, though his encampment or 
last niglit N\as but seven or eight miles above mine. 

My encampment to-night is a few miles above a cedar bluff on the 
east side of the St. Croix, called by the Indians the Standing Cedars, 
where the Sioux and Chippewa boundary line crosses the river. 

July 28. — At my encampment last night, I met a trader, Mr. Brown, of 
the American Fur Company, who had been trading a year or two on the 
St. Croix, a few miles above, at a post which he had now abandoned, to 
establish another at the mouth of the river. He represented the rapids 
above to be so numerous, and so frightfully bad, that I was almost deter- 
mined to turn about, and go home by the way of Prairie du Chien and 
Green Bay. But I learned tliat Mr. Schoolcraft was only seven or eight 
miles ahead, and I supposed he would wait at the rapids for me to come 
up, to render me whatevei- assistance circumstances might require; and. 
after purchasing a canoe from Mr. Brown, the best he had of three, I 
abandoned the one I had got at Fort Snelling, now almost a wreck, and 
proceeded. ' 

A few miles above where I encamped, the river is traversed by a primi- 
tive rock, which, for a distance of one or two hundred yards, confines the- 
channel within perpendicular walls, fifty feet Iiigh, and rises in a high 
abrupt little island in the middle of the stream, but occasions no rapid. 
Above this the banks are high and steep, but not rocky, till within a mile 
of the falls, when the channel becomes suddenly contracted to from fifteen 
to thirty yards, by rocks forming mural precipices on each side, fifty and 
one hundred feet high, between which the river, though very deep, is urged 
with great velocity. This rock and the narrow channel continues, with 
a few interruptions of coves and fissures, one mile up, to the falls, where 
the river is but forty feet broad, and rushes with great force and violence 
down a fall of fifty feet in three hundred yards. The whole of this rock is. 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 57 

greenstone trap, and its surface presented tp the river in high cliffs is ex- 
ceedingly rugged and broken, prismatic Iragments being continually de- 
tached from it and tumbled down. 

It had not been possible to teach my men the whole sciejice of cano& 
management, and I iiad the greatest difficulty in getting through this rocky,: 
rapid, and difficult pass, to the foot of the falls and portage, my canoes 
being frequently in the most imminent peril of being driven on tlie rocks, 
and dasjjed to pieces by the force of the current. These fails are twenty- 
four miles above Lake St. Croix. The portage round tliem is six hundred 
yards, which we made, and embarked from the head of it at 3 P. M., 
having been occupied from early morning till this time, steadily and labo' 
riously, in getting eight miles from our encampment. 

Above the falls, the river is a continued rapid for five miles ; running, 
for this distance, in a broad cliannel, over an entire bed of boulders and 
fragments of rock. But being generally shallow, it was not so difficult or 
dangerous to ascend, as the rapids below ; at)d my men, by wading by the 
side of the canoes, could push them along, and in some measure protect 
them from the rocks. It, however, required five hours to get over this 
rapid, and w^e encamped at the head of it, at 8 P. M. on the west bank of 
the river, near the site of Mr. Brown's late trading house, having, with 
the utmost exertion, made this day but 13 miles. The land about our en- 
campment is level and very rich, supporting a heavy luxuriant forest of 
ash, oak, walnut, sugar-maple, &c., but it is the first really good land that 
we have seen on the river, and docs not appear to be extensive. Mr. 
Schoolcraft encamped last night at the foot of the falls, but did not wait 
for me this morning, as I had expected he would, and I have not seen him: 
since we left the Mississipj)i. 

July 29, (Sundatj.) — Mr. Schoolcraft had made it a rule not to travel 
with his pai'ty, on this expedition, on Sunday, and, supposing he would ob- 
serve the same on this day, I confidently expected to overtake him before 
night. I was particularly anxious to do so, inasmuch as I had now no 
gum* for the repair of my canoes, and I knew he had an abundance; and I 
wished, moreover, to get, through his means, at the first Indian village, 
two Indians to steer my canoes ; by which my men could be saved from 
much of the wading and consequent hardship and exposure, of the method 
of ascending rapids that the want of competent steersmen had forced me 
to adopt; and by which they were now so much exhausted, and bruised in 
their feet and legs, as scarce to be equal to the exertions still necessary, 
and required of them. I accordingly ui-ged forward as much as possible, 
and got to the site of Mr. Schoolcraft's encampment in the afternoon, where 
I learned, by a note left for me by Dr. Houghton, that the whole party had 
left, two and a half hours before, with an intention on the part of Mr. S. 
not to wait for me any where on the route, but to proceed home with all 
possible speed, giving as a reason for this measure, that the river was 
falling, and any delay but increased the difficulty of ascending it. I was 
dissatisfied with this proceeding of Mr. S., and deemed it unwarrantable 
by the official relations in which we stood to each other, inasmuch as I was 
thereby deprived of the services of the surgeon and interpreter, to which I 
considered myself rightfully entitled within the intention of the depart- 
ment, so far as such services might be necessary for the safety of the de- 

• A resinous exudation from pine, used in the construction and repair of bark canoes, to 
close the seams and holes in the birch bark. 

8 



58 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

tacliment, and to enable me to execute my instructions. These gentlemen 
had been employed for the purposes of the expedition, and as the execution 
of certain of those purposes had been separately assigned to me, I had a 
right to expect that the means provided for their execution should not be 
withheld fi-om me by the power to wliom they were entrusted by the de- 
partment to control ; but by this sudden and unadvised withdrawal of 
those means out of my reach, I was not only embarrassed in +he perform- 
ance of an appropriate duty, but placed in a situation of extreme inconve- 
nience, and even danger, which could not have been anticijjated or intended 
by the department in the project of the expedition. It is not to be sup- 
posed that the dejjartment would require soldiers to travel through such a 
country as this, and encounter the extraordinaiy exposure and danger inci- 
dent to their transporting themselves, without some piovision of medical 
aid; and still less could it be deemed practical)le for a detachment of 
troops to effect a journey through an unknown, wild, inhospitable Indian 
country, without guides of any kind to direct, or an interpreter, through 
whose means to obtain guides or necessary geographical information. But 
such was my situation now ; I had this route to travel, of which I neither 
knew the length or direction, the quantity or character of its difficulties, or 
the time and means that would be required to overcome them. For sup- 
])osing that I was to tra^ el it with Mr. Schoolcraft, who had guides, I had 
not made any useful inquiries respecting it. In this embarrassment, I 
would have turned back and sought another route home ; but, from the num- 
ber of rapids whicli I had already ascended, I supposed there could not be 
many more to tlie summit of the river ; and that, consequently, it was as 
easy to go forward as back, and particularly as, with my present means, 
it was less diilicult to ascend than descend rapids. Moreover, by the route 
of Prairie du Chien, I could not now iiope to reach Fort Brady for a long 
time, in which apj)rehen&ions. with the commanding officer there, for my 
safety, as he could not hear of me after the return of Mr. S., might, I sup- 
posed, lead to measures which a more speedy return by this route might 
avert. And again. Dr. Houghton informed me in his note that he would 
wait for me at La Pointe, in Lake Suj)erior ; that we might pursue a pre- 
vious arrangement, by which he was to travel home with me, that we might 
make some further examinations along the lake ; and, unless I called theie 
for him, he could not, probably, get iiome this fall. These considerations 
induced me to continue tlie route, bad as the prospect was of finding it. 

But of Mr. Schoolcraft, it is a subject of just complaint that he has 
separated himself from nie at a time when I most dej)ended on him, and 
when, knowing, as he did, the unfitness of my men for the sole manage- 
ment of canoes on this difficult route, he must have been fully aware of 
the great exposure and fatigue which I must encounter in tlie accomplish- 
ment of this journey without his assisfance, wiiich he had now withdrawn, 
but which it was in his power and was his duty to afford. 

Had Mr. Schoolcraft told mc at Fort Snelling that it would be for me 
to perform the remainder of the trip alone, and on my own resources, I 
might there have secured sufficient resources, or, being relieved from the 
escort duty of protection to his party, I might have returned home by 
another and less difficult route, whicli I probably would have done. But 
by a strange interpretation or disregard of his official relation to the escort, 
he has led it, ignorant of such a contingency, into a situation of difficulty 



[ Doc. No. 323. J 59 

not compatible with its separate means of resistance, and there left it to 
encounter the difficulty as it best might.* 

I continued a few miles above Mr. Schoolcraft's encampment, and stop- 
ped for the night, having given up all hope and prospect of overtaking him. 
My men having been in rajiids most of this day also, were much worn 
out and discouraged ; and my canoes leaked badly, and could not be re- 
paired for w ant of gum. 

The country passed today is hilly and poor, with a scattered growth of 
pine and scrub oak. 

July 30 The rapids to-day were numerous and bad, and, with the ex- 
hausted condition of my men, 1 made but little progress, not more than 14 
or 15 miles, and stopped at ni'ght, at an Indian village at the mouth of 
Snake river, 37 miles above tlie falls. 

About three miles below the village, I met three Indians in a very- 
small catioe, with a note for me from Mr. Schoolcraft, by which it ap- 
peared that they were sent to "guide and assist me up the rapids," fop 
which service I was to ])ay tliem in provisions. They returned with me 
to this their village, and signified that they would go no further, this being 
as far as their father (Mr. Schoolcraft) had asked or employed them to go. 
I gave them to understand, by signs or whatever means I could, that 
I wished two of them, at least, to guide me to the source of the river, and 
that I would reward them libeially with provisions for such service, but 
none of the village would consent to go, excepting one young Indian, the 
chief's son, who, taking a fancy for a calico shirt 1 was wearing, agreed to 
go two days' journey with me, on condition of my adding this to my for- 
mer liberal offer of provisions. But I could offer nothing to induce any 
of the otiiers to accompany me, even for two days, because, perhaps, they 
were not in need of provisions ; and I had little else to give them. Un- 
doubtedly, if I had had some articles of Indian goods, 1 could have succeeded 
better. 

This village is of the Snake river band, the chief of which is Pe-ghee- 
kee, wlio had been to Wasliington, as appeared by a paper he showed me, 
signed by Mr. Calhoun. There were sixty or seventy Indians present, 
ten or twelve of whom were men. Their trader is Mr. Warren, who sends 
goods to them every winter, from his establishment at La Pointe. Their 
country affords abundance of deer, bears, and fish, and they seemed to be 
comfortably clothed. They seldom war with tlie Sioux, being too near 
the post of Fort Snelling, and they look skulking and mean, and are 
thieving, as I experienced. 

July 31. — It was 9 o'clock this morning when I had completed the repair- 
ing of my canoes. I purchased all the gum I could get of these Indians, for 
which I paid enormously, but could not procure near so much as I wanted ; 
my canoes consuming much of it for the frequent repairs required on this 

• The uniform and obliging politeness which I experienced with Mr. Schoolcraft during 
the whole previous journey on this expedition, makes me regret to have to record this ex- 
ception. 

It is also due to him to remark in this place, that he did send three Chippewa Indians fron» 
the mouth of Snake river, " to guide and assist me up the rapids," but they met me only 
three miles below their village, and would not accompany me above it, giving me to under- 
stand that this was all Mr. Schoolcraft had required of them. They were consequently of 
no use to me. He also, subsequently, when he had reached Lake Superior, sent me two 
Indians in a canoe, who met me on the Bois Brule river, (which I was descending,) about 
45 miles from its mouth, and were of much service to me from there down to the lake. 



60 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

river. We passed rapids again nearly all day, and made but 17 or 18 
miles. The river, losing its tributaries as we ascend, is getting lower 
continually, making the rapids, where tlie water is slioal, more destructive 
to the canoes. The country to-day and yesterday is poor, and pine; none 
of it fit for cultivation. All the way from the falls, the bed of the river 
is filled with boulders of primitive rock. 

Migust 1 The river was less rapid to-day, is filled in this part with 

sandbars, and skirted witii lowlands and swamps, with pine hills back. We 
reached the mouth of Yellow river at 4 V. M., a distance of 30 miles. 
Here is a large Indian village and a trading house, which Mr. Warren 
occupies in winter, by one of his clerks. Most of the Indians and their 
chief, however, were absent. 

Yellow i-iver comes into the St. Croix from the southeast, and is one of 
its principal tributaries ; it is navigable for canoes 60 miles to its 
source, near Ottowa lake, and runs througii several little rice lakes. My 
Indian guide from Snake river refused to go further, and I coulJ not in- 
duce any of the Indians hei-e to take his place, but I succeeded in making 
one of them understand that I wished him to sketch me a map of the river 
above, which he did, though very badly. We encamped a few miles above 
the village, where some of the Indians followed us unperceived, and, with 
a most daiing theft, stole the bread which was baking at the fire, before 
which the men were sleeping. 

August 2. — Ten miles above Yellow river, we passed the mouth of the 
Nam-a-kwa-gon river, another lai'ge branch of the St. Croix, coming in 
from the east, where we found an Indian encampment of two lodges ; and 
I was again unsuccessful in an application, as well as I could make it, for 
a guide, but they sold me some gum and birch bark for provisions. The 
St. Croix above was very sensibly less, and its numerous rapids broke my 
canoes, and detained me as usual ; one of them was repaired in the bottom 
this afternoon, with about six srjuare feel of bark. 

In the course of the day, I met a hungry Indian and his wife descend- 
ing the river in a good little new canoe, which I purchased for an injured 
bag of flour, of about 80 lbs. weight. The canoe was worth about ten 
dollars ; but the flour, according to traders' prices for it, was worth twen- 
ty dollars ; and this would appear cheap to any one who should witness 
its transportation to this place. By means of this canoe I lightened the 
other two, and passed the rapids much easier. I met, also, the Indian 
chief of this comitry, Keppameppa, with a note from Mr. Johnston, the 
enterpreter, enclosing a sketch of the Bois Brule river, which I was to de- 
scend to Lake Superior. Journey to-day 16 miles. 

^^ugust 3. — The river has become so low that we have to wade over all 
the rapids, which seem to be interminable. Many of them, to-day, were 
over shelving sandstone rock ; tiie fragments of which, broken and strewed 
in the channel, have cut up my men's feet, and the bottoms of the canoes, 
horribly. Made about the same distance as yesterday. 

»iugust 4. — Passed a long expansion of the river, grown over with wild 
rice, on the east side of which is an Indian village, of seven or eight lodges, 
with gardens of potatoes, squashes, and corn, adjacent. This is Keppa- 
meppa's permanent village ; but all the Indians were now absent, hunting 
or fishing. Twelve or fifteen miles above this village, we came to another 
expansion, or narrow rice lake, five or six miles long, the upper end of 
which receives Ox river j the St. Croix coming in below Ox river, on the 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 61 

west side. From my ignorance of the route, I was near getting lost at 
this place, by following up the wrong river. A broad, plain channel, with 
a current all the way, leads up, through the rice, to the mouth of Ox river ; 
but the St. Croix, which is here the smaller of the two rivers, comes in, 
as it were, on one side of the rice pond, and has its mouth, in a measure, 
concealed by t)ie grass growing in it. Each canoe passed in succession to 
the mouth of the former river, without noticing the latter ; but I had re- 
marked, as I passed, an opening in the woods, as thougli a stream came in ; 
and after entering the mouth of the wrong river, I went back, to be satis- 
fied as to this appearance, and found the stream ; but, from its being smal- 
ler than the other, I was still in doubt which to take, till I had followed it 
up a short distance, to a rapid, where I observed, on a rock in the bottom, 
a little red spot, which, on examination, proved to be red lead paint rub- 
bed from Mr. S,'s canoe, which had touched the rock. This little circum- 
stance determined this to be the proper route, a)id saved me from the error 
of taking the other ; which, if J had done, might have led to further 
error, and been attended with serious consequences : for, if I had been lost 
for many days in this poor country, till my provisions were exhausted, 
starvation would have been almost inevitable. 

From here the St. Croix, now very small, crooked a few miles through 
a tamrack and cedar swamp, and brought us to its source, in a beautiful, 
clear, deep lake, (Upper Lake St. Croix,) twelve miles long, and from one 
to three wide, w ith a pretty little island near its southern end, on which 
were two Indian lodges, but no Indians. 

We passed through the length of the lake, which lies "north and south, 
to the portage, leading from its northern extremity to the Bois Brule river. 
It is surrounded by pine hills, at the base of which, on its western side, 
there is a little good land, where the Indians have gardens. The lake is 
forty-six miles above the Namakwagon river, and two hundred and one 
miles from the mouth of the St. Croix. 

We have now been nearly ten days ascending this river, though, on leav- 
ing Fort Snelling, we expected to reach Lake Superior in eight days ; but 
this has been, for me, a most difficult route, and my progress has conse- 
quently been very slow. 

Excepting twenty or thirty miles at its head, this river is filled with 
rapids from its source to the falls ; and, in a distance of one hundred and 
twenty miles, its descent cannot be less than seven hundred feet. Our 
<;ourse up the river was, for the first sixty miles, north ; afterwards, north- 
east, to its source. Above Snake river, the country is poor, showing 
cedar and pine hills next to the river, and pine hills back ; mostly yellow 
and pitch pine. 

The country bordering the St. Croix and its tributaries, is called the 
<< Folle Avoine," or Wild Rice country, from its many rice ponds and 
lakes. I could not ascertain the number of Indians in this country, but 
they are not numerous. They subsist on wild rice, fish, and game, of 
which they have abundance, and to spare to their traders, who depend 
principally on these Indians for their meat. They furnish, annually, about 
five thousand dollars worth of furs, composed of otter, martens, rats, bears, 
raccoons, and deer skins, with some beavers and foxes. They looked 
meaner, and weie more thieving than any of the Chippewas I had met 
with. They hate the Sioux, but seldom war with them. 

The portage, from St. Croix lake, runs over a high pine ridge, of six 



62 [ Doc. No. 323. J 

or seven hundred feet elevation above the lake ; from the summit of which, 
looking to the westward, across the valley of the Bois Brule, high conical 
peaks, and regular hills, closely covered with only pine, may he seen ris- 
ing one above another, as far as the eye can discern. The length of the 
portage is t«o miles. ' 

About a mile from the head of the lake, and west of the portage, the 
Bois Brule has its source in a large spiing or little lake, twenty yards 
across, of clear, cold water, from whicii the Bois Brule runs on one side, 
and a small stream to the lake on the other j one to Lake Siiperiur, and 
the other to the Mississippi. But in seasons of floods and high waters, the 
Bois Brule runs from the larger lake, and through the smaller. Where 
the portage struck the river, the latter was very small, about eight feet 
broad, five or six inches deep, of very clear and cold water, running swift- 
ly over a sandy bottom. I got part of the baggage through, and encamped 
on the portage. 

August 5 — The men's feet and legs were so very sore, from the effects 
of their previous wading in the rapids of the St. Croix, that the carrying 
on this portage distressed them much ; and although the baggage was now 
comparatively light, it occupied them till twelve o'clock to get over what 
had been left the previous evening. 

We embarked, and descended the river 18 miles to encamp. At first, 
the stream was veiy narrow and shoal, barely floating the canoes without 
the men ; but after winding through a wet meadow and a tamrack swamp, 
in which it received several little streams, in a distance of ten or twelve 
miles, it had increased to a width of thirty feet, and a depth of one or two 
feet, with a current of one mile per hour. Its shores were very much 
clustered with a species of alder, (alnus serrulata.) which in narrow parts 
interlocked over the stream so thick and close, that it was hard to force 
the canoes through it. 

August 6. — Two or three miles from our encampment brought us to the 
"Little Falls," where the river, fiom being thirty yards broad above, is 
contracted to fifteen Jeet, and falls tiirough a rocky channel, fifteen feet in 
fifty yards. It may be passed in light canoes, skilfully managed, but I 
had mine carried over the portage 150 yards, on the west side. Below the 
falls, the river was mostly rapids, which were of so bad a character, from 
the shallowness of the water, the strength of the current, and the rocks 
with which they wevejilled, that, to pass them with any degree of safety, we 
"were obliged again to wade by the side of the canoes, and conduct them 
down ; and even by this means we could not save the canoes from great 
injury. We had to stop frequently to repaii', and before night had ex- 
hausted all our gum, after which it required one man to bail constantly in 
each canoe, to keep her free, and when we stopped at night they were all 
in a sinking condition. The muskets, boxes, all our baggage, excepting 
the flour, wiiich was piled above every thing else to save it, was wet tho-| 
roughly. But it is our greatest misfortune to be out of gum, for without 
it the canoes cannot be repaired, and without great rej)airs my canoes will 
not be in a condition to carry us much farther. I have procured all the 
gum I could from all the Indians I have met with on the St. Croix, but my 
canoes have been so often broken as to have required it all. From the 
w reck of an old canoe found in the river this evening, we have procured a 
little, with which we have repaired, as well as we could, for to-morrow. 

We have come to-day twenty-two miles, in which distance the river is 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 63 

very crooked, AvincHiig through a low, narrow valley, which is bordered by 
cedar and pine hills of the most forbidding aspect. 

I made an attempt to walk down the shore, with three of the men, but, 
from the numerous ridges, ravines, and swamps, we found it much easier 
to wade in the bed of the river. 

The river is exceedingly cold and clear, and is filled with thousands of 
the real mountain brook trout. 

August 7 This has been a most disastrous day. For the whole dis- 
tance that we have come, which is about twelve miles, there is scarcely a 
part of tiic river that is not rapid, and much of it of the woist character 
that it is practicable to descend. On starting this morning, I rc(piired all 
the men, but one disabled, to wade, and lead tlie canoes with the utmost 
care : but the rapids were so strong, and the rocks so slippery, that it was 
not possible for them to keep their feet, or to save the canoes from striking 
often ; and, before 8 o'clock in the morning, all my canoes were leaking 
badly ; they had been so often repaired that their bottoms were nearly 
gummed over, and every touch on a stone knocked some of it off, and 
opened a leak. At 8 o'clock, however, I met two Indians, in a very little 
canoe, whom Mr. Schoolcraft had sent from the mouth of the river, to 
bring me gum, and to pilot me down. The gum wjis of great service, in 
enabling me to proceed witii my canoes ; but their little canoe was too 
small to carry any thing of consequence, and neither of the Indians would 
consent to leave it, to take charge of mine ; and their piloting was of no 
use, for my men had not the skill to follow them, or to steer a canoe as 
tiiey did, by means of poles. In the afternoon, after I had used up all the 
gum again, in repairs, my largest canoe had her bottom literally torn off 
in a rapid, and sunk, and her baggage had to be taken by the others, al- 
ready loaded too much. A little after 1 met two canoes, with two Indian 
families, going up, and aftei- failing in an endeavor to purchase one of them 
\vith any thing I could offer, 1 hired the two men to leave their families 
here, and with one of their canoes to take a portion of my baggage down 
to the lake, for which I gave them two soldiers' blankets, provisions, and 
some other articles ; but they refused, for additional compensation, to allow 
a soldier to take the place of eitlier in their canoes, that the other might 
steer one of mine : fearful, no doubt, from observing the condition of my 
canoes, that the skill of a soldier was not a good guaranty for the safety 
of theirs. After this arrangement, we reached the first portage below the 
falls, where the baggage was carried over a very ugly road, one mile, and 
the canoes, lighted, passed by the river, and I encamped at the lower end 
of it. But when my canoes were taken out, one of them proved to be a 
wreck, and irreparable, which reduced me to one small Indian canoe of 
my own, and the two still smaller ones of the Indians. These were in- 
sufficient to transport my baggage and men, and there was no resource 
left but to walk, which, from tiie nature of the country, seemed to be im- 
practicable without a guide, who could lead by some route over the hills, 
and far back fiom the river. One of the Indians whom I had hii'ed above, 
seemed to know the country, and by offer of liberal compensation I in- 
duced him, though not without difficulty, to consent to allow a soldier to 
take his place in the canoe, while he would guide us tliroiigh the country 
to the lake ; a distance, as I understood him, of one day's journey. I 
made my arrangements accordingly : seven of the men and myself were 



^4 [ Doc. No. 823. ] 

to walk, with the guide, and tlie remainder, including liim who was lame, 
to go with the canoes. 

Mgnst 8.— When we rose this morning, my guide and his companion 
had disappeared. I and my men had slept soundly from the taligues of the 
previous day, and the rascals had stolen away with their canoe in the night, < 
unperceived, taking with them the articles tiiey had received for their hire, 
and a quantity of bread that had been left to bake at the fire. I was not 
in a situation to pursue them, and as they could ascend the river much 
faster than me, pursuit was useless. I had now but two little canoes lett 
for all my baggage. The soldier who was lame, and a few articles ot 
loading, all it would safely carry, were embarked in the lesser one of the 
Indians, and the remainder in the other, giving it in charge to two of my 
best men, with instructions, as it was overloaded, to wade, wherever they 
could, and lead it down slowly. The remaining seven of the men and 
myself set out to make our way over land, taking with us provisions tor- 
two days, a few blankets, a musket, and a fowling piece. All set otl at 
6 A. M. I attempted at first to follow the valley of the river, but it was 
so thickly grown over with brushwood and cedar, and presented so much 
swamp, as to be utterly impracticable, and I was forced to leave it, and 
take to the hills, which presented difliculties but little less forbidding : their 
ascent being six or seven hundred feet, steep, and covered, all the way 
up, with a growth of tamrack, cedar, and thick undergrowth, which ap- 
peared to be impenetrable. Their summits were generally covered with 
pine, but were irregular, and made a very bad route, which was olten, too, 
intersected by deep ravines, running to the river, and presenting sides as 
steep and as closely covered with cedar, &c. as the valley itselt. b wamps 
also occurred in the depths of the ravines, and had to be crossed. By 
means of a compass, I kept, as well as 1 could judge of it, the general di- 
rection of the river, and during the day descended quite to the river seve- 
ral times, to be sure of not getting lost. The men followed me very badly, 
their feet and legs being bruised and cut, and much swollen, trom the 
effects of the rapids. Most of them found it troublesome to walk at all, 
and one was so far overcome by sprained and bruised ankles, as to ask to 
be left in the woods. But as I had only two days' provisions, and knew 
neither the distance nor difficulty between me and the lake, I felt a strong 
necessity to urge them on as fast as they could bear. ToNvards sunset, 
however, after we had come about thirty miles, we ascended a high peak 
of a pine hill, where one of the men ascended a tree and got a view ot the 
lake before us ; and descending then to the valley of the river, a ew miles 
more brought us to its mouth, and an Indian village. We had walked 
about thirty-five miles, over an inconceivably bad route, and were all 
much fatigued ; the distance by the river, to the point we left this morning, 
is forty miles, and our route over the hills has been almost as devious. 
The Indian canoe, which had started in the morning, arrived about an 
hour after us ; but the other did not, being too much loaded to keep up ^ 
vith the Indians. . , „ 

Mgust 9 My canoe had not arrived at eight this morning, and tear- 
ing some accident had befallen it, I borrowed a canoe from Mongarid, the 
chief of the village, and taking one of my men in the bow, and a supply ot 
ffum, I set off to meet it. I had applied myself much, necessarily, to the 
conduct of my canoes, and could now steer one as well as any ot my men. 
We proceeded up the river eighteen miles, over very many rapids, ana 



[ Doc. No. 823 ] 65 

Found the canoe and baggage on the shore ; the men in charge of it having 
come thus far with great trouble, when their gum was exhausted, and the 
canoe so much injured as to be unfit to proceed farther without repairs. 
We had met one of the men a few miles below, on his way to the mouth of 
the river for gum. 

I repaired the canoe with nearly all the gum I had, and taking half the 
loading into mine, I embarked again, but had proceeded only a little way 
when the broken canoe required furtlier repair. It had been so much 
thumped on the rocks that its bottom was almost destroyed, and was so 
loose now, on the distending bars, that every knock it got jarred the whole 
bottom, and cracked off the gum from every part of it. But I could not 
dispense with this canoe, as Hie other would not carry the baggage, and 
had recourse to anotlier, and novel metliod to keep it afloat. Finding a 
tough, marly, red clay, in the bank of the river, I took the canoe out, and 
had its bottom rubbed all over with it, till it was forced into the seams and 
leaks, so as to stop tiiem completely. I then embarked the canoe, and 
urged her on, as fast as possible, till the clay dissolved out, and the leaks 
again opened, when a similar process, hastily repeated, was alike effectual. 
In tiiis way, apjjlying the clay about every half hour, I reached the mouth 
of tite river, with both canoes, and all the baggage, about ten o'clock at 
night. 

Tiie journey down the Bois Crule has thus required five days, and has 
been a scene of trouble, difficulty, and danger, nearly all the way. The 
river is ninety-four miles long, and from the Little Falls (twenty-two miles 
from its source) to its mouth, in a distance of about seventy miles, it has 
a descent of more than seven hundred feet, without a perpendicular fall of 
more than eigijteen inches or two ieat in the whole distance ; hence some 
idea may be formed oftlie great quantity and strength of rapid which must 
necessarily occur in this short river. 

From the falls, the river winds through a deep ravine, between high 
pine-topped hills, the sides of which, next to tiie i-iver, were thickly grown 
over witli cedar, pine, tamrack, and brushwood ; near the mouth of the 
rivei', the hills rose very steeply, and the growth was mostly cedar, (cu- 
ju'essus thyoides.) and in son»e places the whole forest had slid off, ex- 
posing a bare bank of red clay, of considerable height. Where rock occurs 
in the bed of the river, in place, it is sandstone ; but in most of the rapids 
the bottom is sandstone fragments, and primitive boulders. The channel, 
in some of the rapids, is broad and shallow ; iti others narrow, with a very 
powerful current, or chute. The source and moutli of the river are nearly 
on the same meridian, but in its course it curves considerably to the east. 

My men have suffere<I mure on this river than on any other part of the 
expedition. Their fatigues and exposures have been greater than men 
ought to be subjected to without strong necessity ; but, under the circum- 
stances, sncli fatigue and exposure could not be avoided. For, at Fort 
Snclling, I had only estimated for flour to take me to La Pointe, in Lake 
Superior, where I liad a supply, estimating the probable tiuic till I would 
reach the lake, at seven or eight days ; but I soon founil that a much longer 
time would be i-equired to accomplish the journey of the St. Croix and 
Bois Brule rivers, and that, although I ha(! an excess beyond what was 
necessary for the computed lime, I was still in danger of not having 
enough ; and, particularly, as much of (he flour was, unavoidably, injured 
by the constant sinking of my canoes. The greatest exertions were, there- 
9 



'66 [ Doc. No. 323. ] 

fore, necessary to avoid tlic inronvenience o^ falling sJtoft of qn'ov'tsiom, !im\ 
"the men were required to do all they could, Irom the time of our leaving 
the Mississippi. But with all the diligence we could use, tiiis is made tiie 
fifteenth instead of the seventh or eighth day that we have heen on the way, 
and one day more would have exhausted our flour. Mr. Schoolcraft, anti- 
cipating such « contingency, has left a hag of.liour here for nye, which will 
take me to La Pointe. 

The distance from the Mississippi to Lake Superior, by the route we 
iiavc come, is two Jiundred and ninety-five miles, and is very direct, hut 
very bad for canoe navigation — both of the rivers being very rapid, and, 
at low stages of watei", like the present, almost impracticable. In accom- 
l)lishing it now, my men have been, some of them, badly injured, and all 
so much exhausted and overworn, that they could not iiave continued much 
farther in the same way. 

I mi^ht, however, have avoided many of the diiUculties of this route if! 
had previously known its character ; for, witli a small supjJy of Indian 
goods, I might have purchased several small Indian canoes, on the St. 
Croix river, where the river became too small for my larger ones; and by 
this arrangement alone, most of the trouble mi^ht have been saved. Two 
.juen only can work in a canoe to advantage in ascending rapids, and, con- 
sequently, tl>3 smaller tlie canoe is, t!ie more effectual will be their exer- 
tions ; and, in descending, the small canoe is easier turned from the rucks; 
and when it does sti-ike, it is with less force than the larger one ; and it 
is, consequently, less injured, an(-l easier repaired, Veiy small canoes, 
however, are objectionable witli awkward men, as they are theii more lia- 
ble to be upset than the larger ones. 

But the manage^nent of bark canoes, of any size, in rapid Hvers, is an 
art which it takes years to acquire; and, in this counti-y, it is only pos- 
sessed by Ca«adians and Indians, whose habits of life iiave taught them 
but little else. The common soldiers of the army have no experience of 
this kind, a)id, consequently, are not generally competent to transport 
themselves in this way ; and whenever it is I'equired to transport troops, 
by meansof bark canoes, two Canadian voyageurs ought to be assigned to 
each canoe, one in tlie bow, and another in the stern : it will then be the 
safest and most expeditious method that can be adopted in this country. 

Mongarid, the chief of this village, has brouglit my boat here from 
Fond du Lac liver, where 1 gave it to him in charge on n»y way up, and 
has kept it safely ; he has also shown more willingness to oblige mo, on 
this occasion, than any Indian I have met with, tliough he is aware that I 
have nothing wherewith to compensate him. 

Mr. Schoolcraft had left the mouth of the Bois Brute on the nwniing of 
the 6th ; he was, therefoie, f(Hjr days ahead of uje. 

August 10 and II.— Embarked again in my boat on the lake, early on 
the morning of the 10th, and reached La Pointe in the afternoon of the se- 
cond day. Here I found Dr. Houghton waiting for me, agreeably to pro- 
mise, and our ariangement for a belter examination of some parts of the 
lake shore; and Mr. Boutwell, the missionary gentleman, who had made 
the route of the expedition with us, aiul was Jiow to remain with the mis- 
sion here, to pursue his pious efforts for christianizing thelndians. The 
country along the lake is described in a former part of this journal, and 
need not be spoken of again. 

.4Mj:«sfJ2anrf 13.— rLeavLng.La. Pointe on the iS>A\\, with Dr. Hoiigh- 



[ Doc. No. 323. ] 67 

toil, wc reached the mouth of Ontonagon river on tlie ISth, at 3 P. M., 
where we were much disappointed in not finding Indians, expecting, as we 
did, to get some of them to conduct us to the « Copper Rock," on this river, 
which it was our purpose to visit. The village which we found here, on 
our way up, had hcen broken up, and the Indians dispersed to their gar- 
dens and hunting grounds in the country hack. After some search, how- 
ever, we found a little Indian canoe laid away in the bushes, and Dr. 
Houghton and myself, with two of my men, set off in it, after I had drawn 
out my boat, and set the men to repairing her in my absence; the Doctor, 
who had made a hasty visit to the Copper the previous summer, undertak- 
ing tlie office of guide. 

August 14. — We reached the forks of the Ontonagon, 38 miles from the 
mouth, at I P. M. Here the river branches into two equal streams, both 
of which being too rapid to ascend farther, we left our canoe, and followed 
the ravine of the right branch two and a Iialf miles, when we ascended a 
bare bank, of red clay five hundred feet high, which, although very steep, 
was of easier asceiit than any other part, from its being free of timber. 
From the summit of tiiis, our course was west, corresponding with that of 
tlje river, and led for seven or eigiit miles through a tall, iicavy forest, 
and over the best land by far that I had any where seen on the lake, or 
near it — it being elevated, rolling in parts, well watered with beautiful 
springs, and very rich in soil and timber — large sugar-maple, birch, hem- 
lock, oak, &:c, ; and in several places I saw little i)atches of leatiicrwood 
(dirca) which grows only on the richest of land. On a little hill here we 
found trap rock, in ])lace ; from which it may be inferred that this rock 
forms a part of the Porcupine mountains, which arc seen from the lake, 
between La Pointe and the Ontonagon, and which have, heretofore, been 
thought to be entirely granite. We finally, to-day, lost the proper route, 
and got lost, and struck the river six or eight miles above the Copper, where 
it was broad and deep, with but little current, and abi'upt high cedar hills 
rising immediately from the water on both sides ; and, turning back from 
this point, we encamped on a high hill, in a forest of heavy pine timber. 

Jlngiist 15. — From the great elevation of our encampment wc followed 
down a dee|) ravine to the river, and after a few hours of troublesome 
search found the <* Copper Rock," the object of thisaimoying and «lifficult 
journey. It lies in the edge of the ri.er, resting on small boulders of 
primitive rock, and near the foot of a red clay bank, twentyoi" thirty feet high : 
it is bright on the surface, from the washing and abrasion of sand during 
freshets, which makes it very conspicuous, and easily distinguished from 
the numerous boulders of i)rimitive and sand rock, which form the bed of 
the river in this part ; but it is also much disfigured by the cutting with 
cold chisels, by travellers, at difterent times, for specimens; and in one 
place is mixed with particles of serpentine rock, which seem to affect the 
solidity of the mass : the copper, however, is continuous throughout, and a 
specimen, cut from any part of the mass, will contain twice as much native 
copper as rock. The mass rings, when struck with a hammer, as though 
it were solid metal, and it is probable that the imperfection of solidity, ob- 
served on its surface, does not extend far into it. 

Its early visiters, among whom is Henry, have estimated its weight at 
about five tons ; subsequently it has been stated at one ton. My estimate 
is, of its mass or solid content, twenty cubic feet ; and of its weight, conse- 
quently, between four and Jive tuns. It is probable there are four tons of 



68 [ Doc. No. 823. J 

pure metal in it, after deducting foreign matter : and this, I believe, makes 
it the largest mass of native copper ever found. 

We made an attempt to cut through a part of it four inches thick, to 
get off a specimen of about thirty pounds weight ; but when we had cut in 
about one inch and a half, furtiier effort only broke our chisels, and we did 
not succeed. Large specimens might be taken from it by means of saws, 
but its edges and thinner parts, where chisels were effectual, have already 
been taken away. Wc however cut off about twelve ])()unds in little pieces, 
from different parts of the mass, and left it at 2 P. M. 

It was one of the objects of our visit to ascertain if there were any other 
native copper, or ores of copj)er, in tlic vicinity of this extraordinary mass ; 
and after careful search we did not discover a i)article or trace of either. 

Returning we followed down the bed of the river, which was filled with 
large and small boulders, and tlic water being low and rapid, we could 
wade it without dilliculty. About two miles below the Copper we came to 
the falls, where t!ie river is contracted, between mural precipices of sand- 
stone rock, from fifty to two hundred feet higli, and falls about two him- 
drcd feet in two miles. The first and gi'catcst perpendicular fall is fifteen 
feet, after which the river tumbles over successive strata of the rock, and 
lias sevei'al perpendicular descents of from one to three or four feet. We 
could not pass this part without ascending to tiie top of the precipice; and 
the rock, on toj), was covered with soil and a growtii of timber. The 
strata of the sandstone dip to the south, rising northerly towards tiie Por- 
cujiinc mountains. It is six miles from the Copper to the foiks of the river, 
and, excepting at the falls, we found tlie channel practicable for walking 
all the way, and mucli tlic best i-oute in low stages of water, but not jirac- 
ticable when the river is high. We encamped fifteen miles below the 
forks. 

August 16. — Wc readied the lake at 10 A. M. and continued our way 
Ijome. 

Jlngnsl 17. — Met Mr. Aitkin, Mr. Warren, and Mr. Oakes, all witfi 
their clerks, voyagcurs, boats, and goods, on tlieir way back from Mack- 
inac to their several trading posts. 

August 18 to 25. — The observations on the coast of Lake Superior, 
made on my return, are embodied in the joui-nal of the route up the lake. 

We were detained by head wiiu'.s at several points ,: one whole day at 
Grand island, and another at Shelklrakc river, thirty miles from Saut 
de Ste. Marie. 

Asevere noi'tlivvest wind overtook us off the Pictured rocks on the morn- 
ing of the 23d, which soon inci-eased to a gale, and made such a sea by 
the time we reached the first harbor, the Grand Marais, tliat we could not 
enter it ; for tiie same I'eason wc could not, safely, run the boat ashore or 
beach iier, and were forced to run on, with the most tremendous seas of 
this lake, till we found a lee behind W hitefish point, a little before sunset. 
We could only keep up a light foresail from the moining, but ran, not- 
Avitiistanding, a distance of ninety miles before night, liut ours being a 
small Mackinac boat, wc were in great danger, 'in the afternoon, of being 
overwiielmcd by the seas. 

We reached Fort Brady, safely, on the 25th of August, in the afternoon, 
having been absent eighty days, and travelled, in that time, a distance of 
two thousand eight hundred miles. 

J. ALLEN, Lieut. 5th Inf. 



